Here is todays’ Laugh Again Stock Market Report:
Helium is way up while paper remains stationary. Pencils have lost a few points and boat anchors are sinking. Knives are up sharply. Escalators continue their slow decline but elevators are on the rise. The market for raisins has dried up, and Coca Cola is fizzling. Diapers remain unchanged, but batteries are exploding in an attempt to recharge the market.
I’ve never followed the stock market too closely, but traveling as frequently as I do helps me keep an eye on exchange rates. When the Canadian dollar plunges lower than my High School math marks, I take notice.
Speaking of school, apart from recess, the class I loved was English. In tenth grade, I was tricked into reading A Tale Of Two Cities when our teacher told us that the book was for a mature audience, and not suited for high schoolers. I could hardly wait to crack the cover.
In it we meet two men: Charles Darnay, a principled and courageous French nobleman who moves to England, renouncing family ties, because of Darnay’s legacy of cruelty toward the lower class. Sydney Carton is a brilliant but cynical drunkard. The two are opposite, save for one striking characteristic: They look almost identical. The two fall in love with the same woman, Lucie, but she only has eyes for Charles. When the two marry, Sydney sinks into despair.
The French Revolution breaks out. The honorable Darnay travels to his homeland to rescue a friend. Arrested, he is sentenced to death for his family’s crimes. Learning of Darnay’s plight, Sydney Carton travels to Paris to visit his “twin” in prison. The two talk, and when Charles turns his back, Sydney puts a chloroform-soaked rag over Darnay’s face, dons his clothes, and departs.
Before Sydney Carton is executed in place of another, he utters his famous last words: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
When I first read this, I knew nothing about exchange rates, but it sparked within me a reminder of another exchange. 1 Corinthians 5:21 says “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” I am thunderstruck to reflect on the great exchange in history. Jesus died my death, so I could receive his life. He took my sin and offered me his righteousness. The greatest exchange is our greatest reason for joy.
