The other day my daughter Jillian and her husband Andy needed me to help wire some money to them.  Their bank is here in Michigan but they live on St. Kitts in the Caribbean.  After some running around to a bank or two and checking with the local Western Union location, I finally had the money on its way.  All Andy had to do was go to the local Western Union location on the island, give his name, his identification, and supply them with the special number I was given to share only with them to prove the funds were for them.  Well somehow on the Western Union paperwork, his last name got repeated so that it said “Andrew Vander Yacht Vander Yacht”.  We didn’t think it would be any problem.  Wrong!  The Western Union person would absolutely positively not release money to Andy because the names did not match.  Really?  Like someone was trying to pose as Andy and had the right ID and numbers but that double last name just rained suspicion down on everything.  <sigh>  After some phone calls and adjustments by Western Union to remove the doubled last name, Andy finally proved his identity and was given his money.  Finally.  I mean it WAS his money from the get-go.  Talk about jumping through hoops to get it in your hands.

Today my mother went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription.  “Oh no, you picked it up last night” the woman at the pharmacy counter stated.  My mother firmly told them that she most certainly was not out in the dark last night picking up a prescription.  “Yes you were” they insisted.  They even pulled up the signature she had signed to prove it.  Wrong.  My mother said “That is not my signature” and made them pull up one of her signatures from a previous order.  Sure enough, they did not match.  But the pharmacy people still argued with her.  Finally the pharmacist showed up and agreed that there must have been a mix-up and gave my mom her bottle of pills.

So what do we have to do to prove to people who we really are???

For Jill and Andy, I guess it’s good to know that Western Union is very careful and specific to be sure they are not handing out someone’s money to just everybody.  And for my mom’s little issue, the pharmacy later explained what happened and got things straightened out (although they owe an apology to my mom for their rudeness to an eighty-some year old).

Isn’t it good to know that God knows us and would never ever mix us up with someone else.  In Luke 12 verse 6 we read that even “the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”  In this world of identity theft, it is sad to think of how safe and secure we must be and yet people can still hack into our private financial information.  Thank goodness I won’t be having any identity crisis with God!

Just Laurel