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“I Will Know” by Elizabeth Sherrill
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I stopped in front of the light switch in our bedroom this morning, grateful for a gift I couldn’t see. It was more than twenty years ago that a white-haired electrician left a gift behind him probably without knowing it.
He’d come to the house to replace some antiquated wiring. We followed him, fascinated, from room to room as he cut through walls, installing wires and switches.
One thing especially intrigued us. Before he closed up the holes in the walls, he carefully lined up the screw heads on the switch boxes. Patiently, painstakingly, he made sure that the groove on each screw was horizontal, exactly parallel with all the others. It was a pleasing pattern, a small work of art really, but who would ever see it?
At last, I couldn’t contain my curiosity, “Why are you taking such trouble when it’s all going to be covered up? Who’s going to know?”
The old man stuck his screwdriver back in his tool belt before turning to look at me. “I will know,” he said.
And I will know has been a family phrase ever since, reminding us that joy in work doesn’t depend on applause. Each little unsung, unseen act today, done with integrity, can affirm like those hidden screw heads that the life “hid with Christ” is the one that counts.
“Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, for then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.”
-- Matthew 6:1(TLB)
Borrowed from Guideposts Best Loved Stories A Treasury of Guidance and Hope, Volume 1, © 1997 by Guideposts, Carmel, NY 10512.
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O God, You have bound us together in this bundle of life;
give us the grace to understand how our lives depend on the courage,
the industry, the honesty and integrity of our fellow men;
that we may be mindful of their needs, grateful for their faithfulness,
and faithful in our responsibilities to them;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
--Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
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