This weekend I was reminded of my years working at a small town newspaper, the Enterprise in State Center, Iowa. It was my first dream job. My lifelong dream was to write and that was exactly what I was hired to do. My boss was taking a risk in hiring me as I had no education to back it up except for high school newspaper activity.
I remember the smell of melting wax when I walked into the Main Street office. Inside was an antique paper cutter on display. There was a counter to meet customers and further back was the vast space of putting together a weekly newspaper. Down the middle of the room was a bank of computers. And if that wasn't scary enough, next I was shown the dark room. Through my training I learned to develop film and make prints (black and white) for the newspaper.
My job involved interviewing people for a story, writing and editing the story, printing out the story, cutting out the newspaper columns, running them through the waxer and posting them on a layout sheet that became a page of the newspaper. I had to make sure we had enough ads to pay for the page, so another part of my job was selling ads.
"Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness," (Isaiah 30:8 NIV).
Believe it or not the newspaper had books made of an entire year's worth of our newspaper. Those were wonderful resources for local history buffs, genealogy seekers, and data for the "Looking Back" column of the paper. I don't remember how far the newspaper went back but I remember stories and ads from the 1920s.
Oh, God, thank You for saving Your Word for us, first on stone, then on scrolls, and now in our Bibles. The "everlasting witness" helps us know You better and shows us how to live. Help us follow Your Word closer each day. We pray in Jesus' Holy name, Amen.
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