Devotion for the week of December 25, 2006

While I was at my parents' house over the holidays, my father asked me to go through some of my stuff in the attic and get rid of what I don’t want and take what I do want. As I search through old Boy Scouts camping gear, roller skates, and books, I came across what was left of my old comic book collection. While sorting through these comics I realized how many old Donald Duck and Goofy comics I had (Goofy is still my favorite Disney Character).

I started to flip through some of these comics to see if any of them where in any shape to keep. I realized that many of them were reprints of comics from the early 1960's, so between the shape they were in and being reprints, they were not worth keeping other than a a few I decided to keep because of the story.

One of those stories had to do with Donald’s rich Uncle Scrooge McDuck. This one comic was about everyone asking Uncle Scrooge for money. This go so bad that it started getting on his nerves and he was taking nerve medicine but it gets to the point that this is not helping too much either. Therefore he decides to go to a remote island that does not have any money along with Donald and his three nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie.

It is relaxing and quiet on the island until Scrooge carelessly discards a bottle cap from his nerve medicine and the natives begin using it as money. They fight over the cap, and this quiet utopia becomes not much different from the city Scrooge McDuck left behind. And what is even worse for Scrooge is that because he has all the bottles of medicine, with their caps, he is the riches man on the island and his nerves just can’t take it.

He comes up with a plan to devalue the currency but having planes drop bottle caps on the island. Soon the caps are starting to be found everywhere, even filling the lake. Scrooge stops the air drops of the caps and everyone learns the lesson about love of money being the root of all evil.

Or I should say most people learn their lesson for the final scene in the comic is of Huey, Dewey and Louie asking Uncle Scrooge to pay them for accompanying him on the trip. They did not learn the lesson that all the things of life must be kept in perspective and God must reign.

Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. But as for you, [child] of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. (1 Tim 6:9-11)