Gotta Dime?

Smart phones, cell phones, cordless phones, push button phones, rotary phones, pay phones, phone booths.

Yes…I remember phone booths.
Both of my sons can relate to a phone booth, not by experience, but by movie trivia.
If asked, they will remember a phone booth as the thing Marty McFly went into to tear out a phone book page with Doc Brown’s address on it.

Years ago, college students could relate to phone booths because it was fashionable to see how many people could fit inside.

Clark Kent found that phone booths came in handy when a quick change to Superman was required.

To the younger generation, a phone booth is nostalgia…a bit of history.
You walk into a glass box.
You push yourself up against the back wall so that you can close the door properly.
You put your money in the coin slot…dial the number…and talk.

If you went over your allotted time, the phone would ring after you hung up.
When you picked it up, the operator would tell you to deposit more money to pay for the extra minutes.
Often people would “conveniently” not answer, or leave the phone booth quickly so they would not be charged.

No one can fathom, with our 24/7 accessibility, what it was like to be at the mercy of a pay phone.
There was always the fear that you wouldn’t have any coins in case you needed to make a call.
People would come up to you and ask to borrow money for the pay phone.
Often people would ask if you had change for quarter: two dimes and a nickel.
A phone call cost one, thin dime.

Mothers would always make sure their children knew how to use a pay phone in case of an emergency.
There was always the added instruction that if it was a real emergency, you could pick up the phone and dial O for operator and it would not cost anything.
But it must be a real emergency.

When I was in high school and used to go to dances, it was mandatory that I had money for a pay phone in case of an emergency.
Girls did not always carry purses since they would be forgotten on the bleachers or just too much of a hassle to carry around all night.
So my mother came up with the ingenious idea of taping a dime to the inside hem of my dress…in case of an emergency.

No one knew it was there.
It was my security…just in case.
I never had to use my emergency dime…but it was there…if I needed it.

After college, right before my husband and I got married, I was going through my clothes.
I sorted things and made give away piles.
I would soon be moving from my home to our home.

I remember pulling a dress out of my closet and hearing a rustling sound as I folded it up.
I couldn’t imagine what was making the noise…until I turned the dress inside out.
There it was.
My emergency dime…still taped to the hem.

How it ever stuck there after many washings and many years I will never know.
What memories.
Memories of a more innocent time.
Memories of blossoming independence…yet still with the protection I so needed.
Protection I probably inwardly protested.

My dime…my deposit…sealed into the hem of my dress.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possessions- to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13,14)

God tapes a deposit to our hearts when we believe and trust in His Son, our Lord Jesus, for our salvation.
We are sealed in Him.
No one can ever remove God’s tape.
His deposit is always there through our many years, and our many washings.
We are made clean by washing with water through His Word.

The deposit is not for an emergency.
It is for an eternity.

There is comfort to know the deposit is there.
It is not there “just in case”.
It is there because He has called…and we have answered.