C is for CASH

I remember, some time in the mid sixties, dad pulling up in his Morris Oxford outside the petrol pumps in Loughgall. It was a dark shade of blue with a cream coloured roof and had round headlights but pointed taillights. Both the front and back seats were like two big couches so it was easy to cram a third passenger into the front, in the days when seat belts were not only not compulsory but often didn’t exist. Anyway, once again I digress, for the thing I remember most about his visit to the petrol pumps was the cost of the petrol. Dad used to be able to get a gallon for about four pounds and ten shillings, which meant when he handed over his pound note to the shopkeeper, who actually came out to serve you, he got almost four and a half gallons for his money. That’s about twenty and a half litres and at today’s prices would work out somewhere in the region of just over twenty one pounds! My present car has a fuel capacity of about seventy litres so at dad’s prices I could have filled the tank for about three pound ten shillings compared to about seventy pounds now. Where did it all go wrong? Equally I remember mum buying Tayto crisps for an old threepenny bit or four for a shilling which was the equivalent of our present five pence piece. Now, four packets of crisps would set you back about one pound fifty at least.
The strange thing is, I don’t remember how they always managed to have ready cash for there was no such thing as a ‘hole in the wall’ into which you could slot a card and withdraw money. Come to think of it, there wasn’t even a card to start with. But no matter when you needed money, for dinners at school or some other activity, they always seemed to have some. I guess they were just very well organised and must have always made it to the Post Office or local bank for there was no other way to get money readily. I sometimes think how fortunate we are today that no matter when you need cash, you can usually find a machine somewhere close by that is willing to hand out some notes. Dad used to have a few really large notes that he kept hidden somewhere in the house though I never knew where. They were pretty old too and hadn’t seen the light of day for some considerable time. I remember once that he gave me this red one hundred pound note which was much larger in size than the notes I was used to seeing and sent me off to pay a house bill at the bank. Imagine the look on the face of the teller who, like myself, had never come across such an extraordinary looking note. It took time and a few conversations behind the counter before he accepted that it was genuine and shortly after that experience, dad decided to cash in the remaining big red ones just in case the same problem arose again. I didn’t ask any questions!

But now I begin to wonder is cash beginning to go out of fashion. Certainly for larger items and in many stores, cheques are no longer acceptable and most people I see, pay with a credit or debit card with cash only appearing for those who choose to buy ‘odds and ends’. More and more people complete their banking online and I’m sure there are those who rarely visit the bank on the high street any more, preferring to do their business by telephone, post or the computer where the figures in our accounts are only numbers and you never see the real notes that were so much a part of our parents’ lives. Of course having to depend on cash and visiting the bank on a regular basis had its advantages, especially because you were rarely tempted to live beyond your means for it’s less painful to sign a piece of paper or punch in a card number than it is to give away money notes. Also you got to know the bank staff and the manager and, more importantly, he knew you and valued your custom in a much more personal way than we see today. I guess that’s why, even though they may have had less than we have, they were always relatively happy with life.

Jesus tells us, in Matthew’s Gospel, ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.’ I can’t pay my way to heaven, even with a credit card but I can be assured of getting there without even opening my wallet. In these days, where many churches put great value on wealth in tandem with our relationship to God. But the real richness of life with Him is to be found in His grace towards us and as Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, ‘My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.’
May you also find your riches not in cash, cheques or cards but in the love of Jesus who has already paid the one price for all our debts over two thousand years ago and it still costs us exactly the same. No charge.