The Day After Christmas
Boxing Day is celebrated in England on the day after Christmas. The original purpose of the holiday was to honor servants with a box containing gifts, hence the name Boxing Day.
Only a small percentage of Americans today have servants in their homes, but we are all blessed by the work of many, many people who serve us sacrificially. Last week when we were having serious plumbing issues, we called our trusty plumbing company (when you live in a house this old, you get on friendly terms with plumbers and electricians and carpenters!). They hurried to switch us from our well to city water.
On Friday they did the “final” hookup and when we returned from the third performance of Fiona’s Gift late that night, we expected to have our problem solved. Instead we found the strangest situation: no hot water from this faucet, hot water coming out of the cold faucet here. Very strange. We were mystified. Ray punched in the plumbers’ emergency number, waking up a pleasant man who said they would be out in the morning.
On Saturday two plumbers were back. Turns out they had hooked something up wrong in the maze of pipes beneath our house. In a few hours it was resolved. On Sunday Ray noticed our plumber’s familiar truck parked at the home of yet another person having pre-Christmas plumbing problems.
The Bible says a great deal about workers and their wages. Ray and I don’t resent what we pay our plumber. We trust him. Even when it is expensive, we are confident that it is a fair price. Our plumber is worthy of his wages.
On this Boxing Day, I want to be thankful for all the valuable services of those who help me in many ways: the people who run gas stations and wait tables at restaurants and fix my plumbing and keep traffic lights in repair and ship my packages and deliver my mail and who man all those stores that are so busy today.
The laborer is worthy of his wages.
Luke 10:7, NASB