Soul Magic -- by David McLaughlan

PERFECTING THE IMPERFECT

In the bowels of The Bank of England there is a museum dedicated to – surprise, surprise – money!

One of their “exhibits” is a forged £10 note. It was part of a Nazi plot to flood Britain with forged currency during the second world war and undermine its war effort. Hundreds of millions of pounds were printed by concentration camp prisoners including some Russian master forgers. The work of forging kept many prisoners alive. Most of the cash never made it as far as Britain, being spent instead by corrupt SS officers.

A representative of The Bank of England compared one of the notes with a real note printed around the same time and explained how they knew the difference. It seems it’s a mistake forgers often make.

He held a magnifying glass over the image of the Queen and pointed out the ermine on her crown. The black spots on the white fur trim on the original were irregular. In his determination to do the best job he could the forger had actually smoothed out the irregularities; he had perfected the imperfect!

The forgery might actually have been better than the original but, in 1943 only one of them was valid.

Despite the best attempts of cosmetics manufacturers and surgeons none of us are perfect but, just like the flaws in the Queen’s ermine didn’t bother The Bank of England, our flaws don’t bother our Creator.

We’re imperfect and that’s the way He loves us. Somebody, some time may be able to forge a perfect human. I hope he or she doesn’t end up preserved in a vault like that £10 note, because in God’s world - and let’s not forget it - it’s the flaws that make us valid.

-- © by David McLaughlan

“Finding the extra in the ordinary.”

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