Saturday, September 13, 2008

How do you "justify" that?

Having been turned down for our high school basketball team because of some high blood pressure, I thought service in the Armed Forces at the onset of WW II was "out" for me. (Later, of course, I did volunteer for the U.S. Navy and was accepted.) So for a few months I worked at the R.R. Donnelley printing plant in Crawfordsville, IN, just 20 miles from Wallace. Since I was an "unknown quantity" for lengthy employment there, I was assigned to the Make-Up Department as a sort of "printer's devil," ready to do any unskilled task. That department "made up" the trays of lead type from the linotype machines (massive things that churned out what our word processors do today). My job on a little manual "proof press" was to run off copies of the text and send it to the proof readers for reading and marking any corrections necessary. The process called for re-setting the lines of type, then, after coating these with red ink, re-inserting them in the tray and again making a copy on the proof press to be sent one or more times back to the proof reading for approval until the text was perfect. Sometimes the lead type-slugs were hurriedly placed back in the tray in a helter-skelter effort and had to be straightened ... i.e., "justified" in the printer's language! Webster says that "to justify" this way means "to space (type) so that the lines will be of the correct length," or, apart from printing, "to show to be just, right, or reasonable," or, "to free from blame or guilt; absolve." This latter definition didn't make sense to me until, after WWII, I repented of my sin and received Christ as my personal Saviour and began really studying my Bible. "Therefore being justified by faith, we (I) have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). The Bible word means not only the forgiveness of sin and the removal of its guilt and punishment, but also the imputation of Christ's righteousness to me and restoration to God's favor for me and all who trust Him. Wow! I kept a little lead slug from my printing days reading "proofed by Grimes" which I had to place in each tray on the proof press, and it is reminder that I am "straight" in God's sight through Christ's work on the Cross and Resurrection and I am kept straight in my daily life as I walk with Him! Proverbs 3:5,6. What a deal for a "printer's devil"!

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