Paper Trail

"Oh, Howard! We forgot to bring our Cracker Barrel gift certificate," I exclaimed on our way to visit family in Texas.  I bemoaned the fact that we could have used it on this trip.  Not finding the sheet of paper that my grandson had printed off on his computer, I guessed I had left it in another purse.

"Well, we could have Jamie print another one," I mused.  "I already deleted it on the computer, because Adam had printed it for me.  But since it went to 'Trash,' I think I can retrieve it," I finished hopefully.

A busy five days followed, during which we enjoyed our grandchildren, met Jamie for lunch a few times, and bravely set out on forays exploring the shops and area on our own, not to mention going to church, and eating delicious meals at their house.

The morning we were to leave, our son suggested we all go to breakfast on our way out of town. "Do you still want me to print out that certificate?" Jamie asked me.  I was glad he hadn't forgotten about it and told him to go ahead.  He asked my password and went through the process, but he said he couldn't find it.  Then I told him it was in "Trash," and he said it was probably lost, because they are only kept about a week in that file.  Sure enough, it had been discarded.

"I'll call Amy and see if she can give me any information on it," Jamie offered.  After all, my daughter was  the one who sent me the electronic restaurant card for Mother's Day in the first place.  Amy said she would try to recover the info and call him back. Meanwhile, I told Jamie that I would probably be able to find it at home, and we could use it another time.  He said he wouldn't look any further, since that was the case.

Just then the phone rang.  Amy had found her order.  In a few minutes, Jamie walked out of his office with the elusive paper in his hand, and, giving it to me, said, "Let's go eat."  When I asked  where we were going, he said, "Cracker Barrel, I hope!"  Since he has Fridays off, we had a wonderful breakfast with him and the grandchildren.

They say that nothing is ever really lost on the internet.  And that may be a good or bad thing. Our paper trail is really an electronic trail.  Jesus keeps records, too.  There is an important piece of paper, so to speak, a page in what the Bible calls the Book of Life. That is where our name is recorded if we have trusted Jesus as our Savior.

"And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are written in the book of life," Philippians 4:2.

Revelation 20:12, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."

"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire," Revelation 20:15.

The Bible also speaks in many places of names blotted out from the book of life, such as in Exodus 32:32-33.  But Revelation 3:5 assures us, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."  

That is a record that cannot be lost or misplaced!