What do you think is the greatest invention ever?

This is a very subjective question, but during the lock down of our senior adult facilities I know the #1 answer to this question.

Maybe you know it too, but here’s a hint.

The greatest invention ever is the one you need the most to overcome your current life struggle.

Just 2 months ago the greatest invention for a stranded soul was toilet paper on a roll, invented by the Scott brothers in 1890.

Before that, the greatest invention for a blind person was an alphabet invented by Louis Braille in 1809.

But after 2 months of covid-19 isolation, I found myself thanking God for the greatest invention ever—the telephone!

As a senior adult pastor, I have a list of 35 senior adults who either live by themselves or are in an assisted living center or a nursing home.

If it were not for the telephone, the corona virus would have totally cut these people off from the outside world.

Except for Agape Hospice House in Lexington, all of the facilities I know do not allow visits from friends or family.

Many of the facilities do not let the residents leave their small rooms at all except to go to doctor appointments.

That’s why the telephone has been a lifeline of much-needed contact with these isolated, lonely, and sometimes fearful people who desperately need to know they haven’t been forgotten.

So, pick up your phone and call someone who might be very lonely and needs to hear someone tell them they are loved.

Share a joke, tell them what life is like on the outside, pray with them on the phone.

The telephone is not quite 150 years old and has come a long way since Alexander Graham Bell first patented a device that would send a person’s vocal vibrations through some wires in 1876.

And aren’t you glad that all your calls don’t have to go through Sarah at the switchboard!

Next week: What a real father does

Dan Williams is the senior adult pastor at Lexington Baptist Church.