Luke 19:17
The Peanut
George Washington Carver once asked God to tell him about the universe. According to Carver, the Lord replied, “George, the universe is just too big for you to understand. Suppose you let Me take care of that.” Humbled, he replied, “Lord, how about a peanut?” The Lord said, “Now, George, that’s something your own size. Go to work on it and I’ll help you.” When Carver was done studying the peanut, he had discovered over 300 products that could be made with that little bit of God’s universe.
Kind Hotel Clerk
One stormy might many years ago an elderly couple entered the lobby of a small hotel and asked for a room. The clerk explained that because there were three conventions in town, the hotel was filled. “But I can’t send a nice couple like you out in the rain at 1 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “Would you be willing to sleep in my room?” The couple hesitated, but the clerk insisted.
The next morning when the man paid his bill, he said, “You’re the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I’ll build one for you.” The clerk smiled, amused by the older man’s “little joke.”
A few years passed. Then one day the clerk received a letter from the elderly man, recalling that stormy night, and asking him to come to New York for a visit. A round-trip ticket was enclosed. When the clerk arrived, his host took him to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street, where stood a magnificent new building.
“That,” explained the man, “is the hotel I have just built for you to manage.”
“You must be joking,” said the clerk. “I most assuredly am not,” came the reply.
“Who—who are you?” stammered the other.
“My name is William Waldorf Astor.” That hotel was the original Waldorf-Astoria, and the young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt.