I Found Jesus at the Green Stamp Store

S&H Green Stamps

I realized that we did not have financial means growing up. My dad worked a full and a part-time job. I wore the crossed the street neighbor girl’s hand me downs. The clothes may have been hand me downs to her. My mom returned the clothes once I outgrew them. Her little sister then wore them.

I asked my parents for an allowance. My mom said that I could have the Green Stamps after our weekly trip to the Maloley’s Grocery Store in Gateway Plaza on the Goshen Road in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That’s when stores were closed on Sundays.

This was an exciting time. I licked the stamps and carefully placed them in the book. The Green Stamp books came apart. So I waited for the even newspaper carrier to deliver the paper into the blue The News-Sentinel box. The newspaper was delivered with a rubber band around it. B-I-N-G-O! The pages stayed together.

I now had a treasure trove of Green Stamps. It was a family outing to go to the grocery store because my mom did not drive. I carefully looked around the far perimeter of the store. A beautiful picture caught my eye. The picture had a fake brass frame with a built in light. Once the picture frame was plugged in, there was a small dial that clicked and turned the light on and off. I had to have this item, and I did not know the man in the picture.

My mom walked over to me with a skillet. I looked at the beautiful picture frame. I looked back at my mom and the skillet. I looked at her and pointed to the picture. My mom said to the lady behind the counter that I would like the picture. I was never so happy.

I gave my mom the remainder of the green stamps. She could use the Green Stamps another day.

Once we arrived home, my dad walked with me to our downstairs area in our home. It was paneled with a shelf that came out from the wall and beneath it was an electrical outlet.

I sat on a big floor pillow, and I felt like I was a character from “I Dreamed of Jeannie.” I then turned the picture frame on after dark. I sat there in the glow of the small light. When I could not sleep and the family was in their dreamland, I would quietly go downstairs and turn the light on and stare at the photo of this unknown man.

I found a picture of the man when we begun in Sunday school at Wallen Hills Methodist Church.  I quietly asked one of the adults, Who is this man?  

I found Jesus at the Green Stamp store.