Medium of Exchange

“The Buck Starts Here”, was the name of the introductory movie we were to view Saturday before starting our tour of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Western Facility, in Ft. Worth Texas. Our son joked that they had already taken us to everything in Houston, where they live, and now they were starting on Ft. Worth, where they met us for this brief vacation.

By the time we viewed the film, looked at the displays and went on the guided tour, we had a pretty good idea of how they make our paper money. Some of the things that stand out in my memory was a little bit on the history of money. The instructive display outlined several criteria for money: 1) Easily carried, or portable. 2) Durable. 3) Attractive or desirable. 4) Backed by a government or authority that it is “legal tender”.

Throughout the tour, which was conducted through a long hall way with display windows on each side, we viewed various stages of making our currency. First, the paper made of cotton and linen is cut into sheets that will eventually become 36 “notes” of various denominations. The sheet goes through a three-step coloring process, imbedding the dyes that will deter efforts at counterfeiting. The engraving process is carried out by the use of enormous pressure on metal plates that stamp the artwork and numbers on the bills.

Finally, the notes of Ones, Fives, Tens, Twenties, Fifties and Hundreds are bundled into “Cash stacks”, shrink-wrapped in plastic, loaded on pallets and put through the final step that turns them into real money. They are put through a machine that records their serial numbers. Only then are they loaded into secure vehicles for transport to banks and government destinations.

Several parallels between money, or medium of exchange, and our salvation occurred to me. First, our testimony is easily carried; it is with us wherever we go. Then, it is durable; it will last a lifetime. Thirdly, ideally, it is attractive. Our lives are to give off a sweet-smelling savor, or the fragrance of Christ, making salvation attractive. (II Corinthians 2:15, Ephesians 5:2.) Fourthly, God has accepted the blood of Jesus as “Legal Tender”, or payment for our salvation. Paper money, such as we use, has no intrinsic value of and in itself. It is known as “fiat” currency. Fiat is a Latin word meaning “Let it be done.” Jesus said, “It is finished.”

I forgot to mention the ultimate proof of a note’s reliability. It has threads woven through it that show up under a special light that prove it is not counterfeit. The scarlet cord that runs from Genesis to Revelation is Jesus’ blood, one that cannot be counterfeited. Also, there are watermarks on our paper currency that show up if held to the light--often a picture of a president or other symbol. A true salvation testimony, when held up to the light of scrutiny or criticism, will reveal the image of Jesus.

Just as the engraving process is carried out under tremendous pressure, Jesus suffered such enormous pressure of the weight of bearing the sins of the world that his sweat become as drops of blood during His Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane. The very word, “Gethsemane”, means “oil press”, indicating that that was the place where the olives were squeezed in an ancient press. All this that we may have His Name engraved on our hearts for all eternity.