I tried something the other day that I have never attempted before. I bought one of those lottery ticket thingies from a convenience store near the house. The one right across from WalMart, actually. I figured no one would recognize me since I never go there. Guess I was successful in that regard. I had to get help from the guy behind the counter, though. I had no idea what I was doing. He was very helpful, too. Explained all the nuances of the different types of tickets that were available. I had no idea you had to choose. I thought you just told them your birthday or some random collection of numbers, and they typed them into a computer somewhere. He did that one. The computer even picked the numbers for me.
I
paid for the ticket and started out the store, but the guy stopped me. He reminded me that I had also purchased a “Scratch
off” ticket. Those I had seen
before. Someone gave me some for a
Christmas present one year. I returned
and picked it up. I figured I may as
well scratch it off right then. It was
more confusing than any of the others I have seen. Combinations of pictures and numbers. A few of them seemed to match up, though, so I
turned to me new friend and asked for help again. He took one look at the images and turned as
white as a sheet. He pointed at the
ticket, then at me, then back at the ticket.
Now I was more confused than ever.
I thought maybe I had done something wrong. Finally, I asked what the problem was. He managed to stammer, “No problem. No problem.
No problem at all.” Well, if
there was no problem, what was the issue?
He finally continued, “You won.
You won. Instant winner. Look here.
See?” I followed his pointing
finger and according to the ticket I was an instant winner of – wait, I had to
scratch off the rest. There was a
one. Then a seven. Then a four.
Then a zero. Then a six. Then another six. Then a nine. Then came a dot, followed by two eights. Wait. Put
that all together … $1,740,669.88. That’s
an odd number. Apparently, it matched whatever
validation number the guy had punched into his computer. That was the amount I won. My new friend was already filling out paperwork
for me to send or take in to the lottery office to claim my prize. It was real.
Just like you read about in the paper.
Lots
of thoughts ran through my head. What
will we do with this money? Guess we need
to get a lawyer or somebody to help us invest it. How long will it take to actually arrive in
our account? Should we keep it
secret? Chris thought we should hold off
on the reveal until next year about this time to give us an opportunity to make
decisions and investments. Why wait
until next April? That just seemed kind
of foolish to me. Nah. Let’s start planning our next trip. I’m ready.
1
Corinthians 1:27 says, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to
shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Father,
thank you for creativity and … fun. Amen
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