“And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Yes, I do believe in the Invisible Man. I saw him one night walking through the pages of Winston Churchill's biography.
Churchill himself was a prolific writer. He penned 73 volumes during his lifetime. The man could write--and talk! On one occasion he spoke before Parliament for two hours and forty minutes -- and it wasn't boring.
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was so impressed that he commented to King George,
“He is not only possessed of consummate ability as a Parliamentarian, but also all the versatility of an actor.”
Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer, used four words to describe his oration:
- Lucidity
- Rhetoric
- Levity
- Humor
Churchill's command of the English language was exceptional. And this brings me back to the Invisible Man . . . Robert Somervell. Gilbert writes,
Churchill had begun to study English under a master who taught it with enthusiasm and skill, breathing life into the normally dull topic of sentence construction. The master was Robert Somervell, 'a most delightful man', Churchill later wrote, 'to whom my debt is great'.
Robert Somervell is the patron saint of all the forgotten and nameless people who leave indelible marks without impressing their signature. They are a forgotten breed in a society that touts Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and YouTube videos that go viral.
Somervell went unnoticed like a silent vowel, but he is just the kind of person Jesus trumpets:
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:1-4
I believe in the Invisible Man because Jesus does. He loves them. He favors them. He calls us to be them.
So to all the Robert Somervell's, the Invisible Men and Women of life:
- Moms who labor in love and prayer for wayward children ...
- Volunteers who serve Jesus with selfless abandon ...
- Workers who give their all when no one is looking but God ...
- Husbands who stay faithful and wives who stay with them ...
- Teachers who pour into students ...
- Doctors and nurses who labor faithfully on behalf of others ...
- People of selfless, silent service everywhere ...
“Your Father who sees in secret will reward you!”
- "He is not only possessed of a consummate ability . . ." from Churchill: A Life (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1991), page 471.
- "Churchill had begun to study English . . ." from Churchill: A Life, page 24.