The Value of Disaster

For ten years Thomas Edison attempted to invent a storage battery. His efforts greatly strained his finances and, in Dec 1914, nearly brought him to ruin when a spontaneous combustion broke out in his film room. Within minutes all the packing
Compounds, celluloid for records and film, and other flammable goods were ablaze. Though fire depts. came from surrounding towns, the intense heat and low water pressure made attempts to douse the flames futile. Everything was destroyed.
While the damage exceeded $2 million, the concrete bldgs, thought to be fireproof, were insured for barely a tenth of that amount. The inventor’s twenty-four-year old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father, afraid that his spirit would be broken. Charles finally found him, calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, white hair blowing in the wind.
“My heart ached for him,” said Charles. “he was sixty-seven, no longer a young man, and everything was going up in flames”.
“When he saw me he shouted, “Charles, where’s your mother?” When I told him I
didn’t know, he said, “find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.”
The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.” Three weeks after the fire, Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph.
With each new day, we have the opportunity to start again, to start fresh…no matter what our circumstances. Let the Lord show you how to salvage hope from debris. You never know what joys lie ahead.
HOPE IS LIKE THE SUN, WHICH, AS WE JOURNEY TOWARDS IT, CASTS A SHADOW OF OUR BURDEN BEHIND US.
Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;