Pastor’s Column. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, told a story on himself. He was waiting for a taxi outside the railway station in Paris. When the taxi pulled up, he put his suitcase in it and then got in himself. As he was about to tell the taxi-driver where he wanted to go, the driver asked, "Where can I take you, Mr. Doyle?"
Doyle was astounded. He asked the driver if he knew him by sight. The driver said, "No Sir, I have never seen you before." Doyle was puzzled and asked him how he knew he was Arthur Conan Doyle.
The driver replied: "This morning's paper had a story that you were on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi-stand where people who return from Marseilles always wait. Your skin color tells me you have been on vacation. The ink-spot on your right index finger suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothing is very English and not French. Adding up all these pieces of information, I deduce that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."
Doyle exclaimed, "This is truly amazing. You are a real-life counter-part to my fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes."
"There is one other thing," the driver said.
"What is that?" Doyle asked.
"Your name is on the front of your suitcase."
It wasn't the powers of deduction. It was the power of observation. Jesus taught us, “Observe the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?... And why do you worry about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat or drink or wear?’…Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Mt6: 26-33
It would seem that we don’t have to be a smart as Sherlock Holmes to see God at work behind the scenes. All we have to do is observe. -DJ
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