Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, July 25, 2026
A few days ago, in quest of a wedding gift, Shelley and I traveled to a nearby town. One of our destinations was a delightful used-book store. My photo is taken from the store’s second level, which featured nothing but books at least a hundred years old. Parked on a desk overlooking the main floor was this ancient typewriter (which itself has probably hit the century mark, but still works fine).
I’ve noticed that images of elderly manual typewriters often show up on the front covers of greeting cards, especially those dedicated to writers or wanna-be writers. There’s a delicious nostalgia about these truly magnificent machines, used for decades and decades by journalists or novelists.
I’ve actually written articles, and once in awhile a sermon, on various manual typewriters (none this old, thankfully), and from teeth-grinding personal experience I can firmly certify that these were not walks in the park. Not only did you have to pound firmly and evenly on all the keys, but you had to watch out for errors, which became even more annoying if you were using carbon paper. Most often, you simply had to rip the paper out of the roller, crumple it up, and start the page all over again. Ah, (or aghhhh), those were the days.
But do you notice what has happened in the photo? Someone has shrewdly shaped a crumpled first draft into something that looks like a rose, supposedly rescuing a discarded product and making it beautiful.
Which of course plants this directly in the center of our line of Daily Photo Parables. One of the Bible’s most heartwarming truths is that God and His Son stand instantly ready to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, not just revising but renewing us.
Want to read or review how this can happen? Click the link just below: