CHRISTIAN ROCK CAFE

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In a devotional in the Mississippi Baptist Record some years ago (May, 1979), Bill Rittenhouse wrote that while on a vacation trip, he found a suitcase on the side of the road. Trying to determine who owned it, he opened the suitcase, only to find the usual items you would expect to find in a man’s luggage. There was only one clue as to who the owner was: a white box with a rubber band around it had a $20 gold piece between two layers of cotton inside. Around the gold piece was a band with the words, “Twenty years loyal and faithful service” on one side. On the other was printed “Presented to Otis Sampson by Northwestern States Portland Cement Company.” No city was named.
Bro. Rittenhouse mailed seventy-five letters before he received a reply from a Portland Cement Company, saying that several years before there had been a Mr. Otis Sampson in their employment, but that he had retired. They sent his address. Rittenhouse wrote Mr. Sampson to tell him that he had his suitcase. Mr. Sampson replied immediately, identifying the contents. He asked that Rittenhouse dispose of the suitcase and all contents, except the gold piece. Several times in the letter, Mr. Sampson referred to the gold piece as his “most precious possession.”

So Bro. Rittenhouse returned the gold piece, and used the opportunity to tell Mr. Sampson of his most precious possession - his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t hear from Mr. Sampson until a year later, when he sent a Christmas box to the Rittenhouse family. Inside the box was a smaller white box with a rubber band around it and the $20 gold piece inside. A note was enclosed, which read: “Last Sunday my wife and I were baptized in a little church here in Colorado. We want you to have the gold piece to carry with you at all times. We are two old people; I’m 74 years old, my wife is 72. You are the first one who told us of Jesus Christ. Now, He is our most precious possession.”

……The Daily Encourager ([e-mail]) by way of ‘Christian Voices’ ([e-mail]).