Taking The Elevator

Taking the Elevator

Peter [said], “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism.”

Acts 10:34

Through the years, I have been privileged to know some prominent people. Most of them are kind, humble people who just happened to be blessed with great wealth or fame. Rarely do they play the look-who-I-am card to gain special attention or garner favors.

For instance, I recently attended the Byron Nelson Championship golf tournament in Dallas with Mrs. Byron Nelson. She could have played her celebrity card, sat in her honorary private box, been waited on hand and foot, and watched the tournament from the eighteenth green. Instead, she wore a volunteer uniform, packed lunches, and served the golfers in the heat. She’s the real deal, as was her husband.

The great violinist Jascha Heifetz once arrived in great haste at Radio City in New York, perilously close to being late for a radio concert with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He hastened into the elevator carrying his violin in its case.

The elevator operator looked at Heifetz’s violin case and said, “You’ll have to go in the freight elevator with that.”

“I have no time,” said Heifetz. “I’m in a hurry.”

“I don’t care,” said the operator. “All musicians with instruments have to ride the freight elevator. That’s the rule.”

Exasperated, Heifetz played what he thought was his trump card: “But I’m Jascha Heifetz.”

And the operator looked him up and down and replied without blinking, “I don’t care if you’re Rubinoff; you have to ride in the freight elevator.”

Like the elevator operator, God does not show favoritism. He says Jesus is the way to come to him. You can’t travel there by some other route. No matter who you are, if you want to spend eternity with him, you have to follow the one and only way.

Help me, Lord, to follow the Way to heaven. I want to be humble enough to do what you have asked me to do. Amen.