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Showing Our Appreciation Or (“Who Packed Your Chute?) The small card sitting on the bedside table caught our eye as we walked into our ship’s cabin. It read, “Hello, my name is Eric and I will be your cabin steward for your voyage. Please call me if you need any assistance.” Eric looked after us during our twelve-day voyage around South America – cleaning our cabin, making our bed, changing our towels and attending promptly to our requests for assistance. How could we not show our appreciation to Eric for the service he gave us? Giving thanks and showing our appreciation to those who have shown us acts of kindness is a Christian ethic we are encouraged to develop in our lives. David of the Old Testament wrote many psalms of thanksgiving and praise to his God for His goodness, blessings and creation. When praying to his Heavenly Father, Jesus offered up prayers of thanksgiving. And the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:20 encouraged the people to “Give thanks always for all things ….”. Helen was a first year nursing student. At the end of first semester there was a short exam to test how the students had been going. The questions were straightforward on hygiene, blood pressure, first aid and so on. Helen breezed through the questions until the last one. Q25. What is the name of the lady who cleans the toilets? Helen thought it was a joke. She had seen the cleaning lady several times. But how would anyone know her name? She left that answer blank. At the end of the exam, the papers were collected and Helen asked the lecturer if that question counted towards final grades. “Absolutely,” said the lecturer. “In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say “Hello.” The way Helen conducted herself in her career as a nurse changed from that moment. To this day she recognizes the value in everyone and treats patients, medics and the public with respect. I recall reading another incident involving Charles Plumb who was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was shot down. He ejected and parachuted to safety but was captured and spent the next six years in a prisoner of war camp. He survived that ordeal and now lectures about lessons learned from that experience. One day, when Charles and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Nam from the carrier, Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!” “How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb. “Oh, I was the one who packed your parachute, “ the man replied. Plumb leapt to his feet and shook his hand in gratitude saying, “I owe you my life, if the chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.” Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about the man who packed his parachute. What might he have looked like in a Navy uniform? How many times did I pass him on the Kitty Hawk? I would probably have not even said hello, or how are you or anything, because I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.” In his lectures Plumb asks his audiences, “Whose packing your chute?” Everyone has someone who provides what he or she needs to make it through the day. One incident in the life of Jesus that emphasizes the principle of showing our appreciation was when he healed the ten lepers and only one returned to thank him. The Scriptures tell us that this man, a Samaritan, was so grateful to be made whole that he threw himself on the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. Jesus’ response was, “Get up and go; your faith has made you well.” As Christians we need to be always sensitive for those occurrences in our lives when we need to show our appreciation. Always remember to say thank you to someone who cleans up after you or “who packs your chute”. Bill Gillard
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