Boyce Mouton
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Letter 592English

Letters From Grandpa #592

Boyce Mouton · 2 pages · 980 words

  • LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
  • 592

Dearest grandchild,

  • Today’s letter will begin with a huge coal mining shovel named Big Brutus.
  • It is 160 feet tall and weighs 11 million pounds. The bucket is large enough to move 90 cubic yards (135 tons) with each bite. It took 150 railroad cars to deliver all of the parts of this shovel and 52 men 11 months to assemble it.
  • This huge shovel was built by the Bucyrus Erie Company in 1962 and began digging coal in May 1963. It operated 24 hours a day for 11 years and ceased to be used for mining in 1974.
  • The shovel is located in S.E. Kansas near Columbus. Today, it is the center of a 20-acre museum dedicated to the mining heritage of Southeast Kansas. Some 22,000 people visited this monster machine in 2023. Visitors come from all over the U.S. and even from around the world to view this amazing machine. Big Brutus was powered by two 3,500 horsepower electric motors. The electricity was generated by eight 500 horsepower motors.
  • Someone said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”!
  • The main thing for shoveling coal was to keep the power connected to Big Brutus for without power this monster machine was useless!

Now let’s change our focus to Jesus and a lecture He gave His eleven faithful apostles on the night before He was crucified. Judas had just left the upper room to betray Jesus (John 13:21-30). Then Jesus said to the eleven “Come now; let us leave” (John 14:31)

On their way to the Garden of Gethsemane it seems that they passed through a vineyard. Seeing the grape vines Jesus said: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:1-8)

Please focus on these words of Jesus - “apart from me you can do nothing”. Unless the branch is connected to the power of the vine it can “do nothing”! The “main thing” is to stay connected to Jesus!

It wasn’t easy to keep the power on Big Brutus! Kansas has lots of storms. On Palm Sunday 1965 two F4 tornados hit S.E. Kansas killing 261 people. In 1966 another tornado hit Topeka killing 17 people. On June 23, 1967 another tornado hit Garden City, Kansas. Etc. While tornados are a constant danger, S.E. Kansas also suffers from blizzards, floods, and other weather related problems. Yet Big Brutus operated 24 hours every day for eleven years! As we have said, keeping the power connected to Big Brutus was not easy and was not an accident! It was the main thing!

The Apostles of Jesus also faced many obstacles and problems. Jesus warned them “Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the

synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.” (Matthew 10:17-18) “In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.” (John 16:2) As we have said, staying in contact with the power of Jesus was the “main thing.” It was the power of Jesus that enabled the apostles to bear fruit!

There is a lesson here for everyone! When Israel sinned in the desert God sent venomous snakes to punish them. God, however, revealed to Moses how the people could be saved. Moses was to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. “Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” (Numbers 21:9) Jesus used this to illustrate to Nicodemus how he could be saved: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”. (John 3:15)

  • The “main thing” for the coal miners was to keep the power connected to Big Brutus!
  • The “main thing” for the apostles was to stay connected to Jesus!
  • The “main thing” for the Israelites in the desert was not to trust in themselves, but to maintain contact with the bronze snake that Moses lifted up on a pole!
  • The “main thing” for you and me is also not to trust in ourselves, but to maintain contact with Jesus! Remember! Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
  • “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce