Purchase for eternity

First-class postage is going up to 42 cents on May 12th, so since I was at the post office mailing a package anyway, I decided to buy the "Forever" stamp.

The question was how many to buy. No one would have imagined, in olden days, devoting much deliberative energy to such a purchase. But everything's about fuel prices now, and so my daily musings to Michigan are suddenly touching on world issues.

Not to exaggerate the current national financial stresses, but I felt the compunction to "lock in" at 41 cents for a few years, with the same urgency that made me jump on 5% interest rates for refinancing my home a while back, or the steely acumen of a hedge fund holder who sells short.

On the other hand, Christ could return any day now. I don't want to be stuck holding all these stamps if He comes back this year, and I could have spent the money better. That would make me like the guy who up and died with an embarrassment of riches in his bloated wheat barns (Luke 12:20).

I confess I really did factor all these considerations in the moments before I plunked down my credit card and asked for fifteen sheets of the stuff. Which told me two things about myself, one bad and one good --- first, that I've been affected on a deep level by the current global financial paroxysms; and second, that the imminent return of Christ has become an operational, and not just formal, part of my psyche.