Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, February 21, 2025
One of my favorite places to visit is a huge multiple-vendor antique pavilion in a city just north of Seattle. I’m not an antique shopper, but I am an antique enjoyer. I love to pause before the display cases, notice a metal toy car, and wonder who played with it back in the 1930s. And if an elderly manual typewriter is on display, I’ll give it a few exploratory whacks, and remember how really challenging it was to use. (Remember White-Out?)
I got a chuckle, the last time I visited, when I noticed this corded phone anchored to a post. Evidently the managers of this shop decided that either (1) a sufficient number of their customers might be a bit young to recognize this as something you could talk on, or (2) they might not realize that it’s a working device. So someone slapped on a pink post-it note and labeled it.
Looking at this elegant throwback, I know that if I lifted the handset and held it to my ear, I would hear another throwback: a dial tone. And if I punched in the right numbers, I would eventually be able to carry on a conversation, probably with excellent-quality audio.
It’s tempting, the more technology that surrounds us, to remember that prayer (which some might think is also a hopeless throwback) still works, and does so with breathtaking speed. We do get through. God does listen.
For a refresher-course on what the Bible says about prayer, click the link just below:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/prayer