The Difference A Label Can Make
A Dutch bicycle manufacturer, VanMoof, has come up with an ingenious idea for ensuring that its product is safely transported to its customers. Oddity Central reports:
VanMoof plans to sell 90 percent of its bicycles online by 2020, but after seeing a considerable number of products getting damaged during deliveries and incurring serious losses, the company was left with two options – rethink its business plan or come up with an effective solution. Luckily, they managed to come up with something so brilliant that it’s bound to be copied by other companies that rely heavily on online sales.
Creative director Bex Rad wrote on the company blog:
Earlier this year our co-founder Ties had a flash of genius. Our boxes are about the same size as a (really really reaaaally massive) flatscreen television. Flatscreen televisions always arrive in perfect condition. What if we just printed a flatscreen television on the side of our boxes?
By simply printing a flatscreen TV on the boxes, they reduced the rate of damaged goods by 70 to 80 percent.
When we value what’s in the box, we treat the box with greater care.
In Genesis 1:27 we read, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." When we understand that people have been imprinted with the very image of God, we treat people with greater care.
But there’s something else that belongs on the outside of our box, something that increases our value even more. Yes, we possess God’s image; but we have also been bought and redeemed by the sacrifice of the Son of God. That means that every person you meet has a price tag placed on them by God Himself--the value of the very life of Christ.
When we value what’s in the box, we treat the box with greater care. How do YOU treat people?
“See how the precious children of Jerusalem, worth their weight in fine gold, are now treated like pots of clay made by a common potter” (Lamentations 4:2).
Men Wanted for Hazardous Duty
Warren Wiersbe, in his commentary of the New Testament, recounts how in the early 1900s, a London newspaper carried an advertisement that read: “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”
The ad, signed by famous Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, brought Inquiries from thousands of men.
[Warren W. Wiersbe is best known as a Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He has ministered in churches and conferences in Canada, Central and South America, Europe, and the United States. He has published more than 150 books and was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.]
Wiersbe postulates, “If Jesus Christ had advertised for workers, the announcement might have read something like this: ‘Men and women wanted for difficult task of helping to build My church. You will often be misunderstood, even by those working with you. You will face constant attack from an invisible enemy. You may not see the results of your labor, and your full reward will not come till after all your work is completed. It may cost you your home, your ambitions, even your life.’”
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me'" (Matthew 16:24).
Empty Solace
The name of a victim killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks appears misspelled in the newly-opened memorial at the former site of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City.
The error was discovered by Jeffrey Schreier's sister, Janice Hart, who visited the memorial Sunday on the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy and her brother’s death. The inscription reads "Jeffery" instead of "Jeffrey," and is the only reported mistake out of the 2,983 names carved in the memorial plate.
"This is the only place we could go to have some solace, and to see his name engraved incorrectly was very distressing to us," she told NBC News, NY.
Hart's husband seemed to take the error as a personal afront, dishonoring his brother-in-law's memory, remarking that seeing the mistake made him feel as if Jeffrey's soul was "now looking down and saying, 'Can't you get my name right?'
The solace the Schreier family is looking for can't be found in a memorial plate. Names graven in plaques of bronze cannot bring back a loved one lost; they cannot wipe away our tears of grief; they cannot erase the pain of life’s losses. In life and in death, genuine solace comes only from the Lord. He is “the only place we can go” to find the comfort we seek. “He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth” (Isaiah 25:8).
A name inscribed on a plaque is empty solace when compared to the promises of God.
“Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again” (Psalm 71:20-21).