God’s pay will not be a gold coin laid in our hand but rather bring about a feeling of satisfaction knowing that we have blessed another in some way or just do a kind deed because we saw an opportunity to do one. Very few things are more satisfying than the feeling we have after providing a service to others. It may be as simple as picking something up that they dropped. The look of gratitude on the faces of those we help is greater pay than a coin in hand.
My wife and I are in our mid eighties now and we spend most of our time at the FamilySearch Library trying to identify our ancestors who have passed on and either doing their temple work or arranging to have it performed by others. What a joyful time to see families tied together in the most important and significant way possible- for time and all eternity. Nobody asks us anymore to help with moving heavy objects. Even though we would like to help that way, our help is limited. Elder David Bednar stated that, “When you cannot do what you used to do – you only do what matters most.” What matters most to us is family not just immediate and living family but those who have preceded us in death. What a joy it is when we find others working on the same line. I was searching my great grandmother, ‘Anastasia Lachapelle’ (I Love that name), and had her family back several generations and came to what was for me, a dead end and I could go no further. A few months later someone else, in a distant place, working her line connected her family from where I was stuck, back to Quebec, Canada and even further back to France. Many generations were opened up that I was unable to find. I was so thrilled I shed tears of joy. No gold exchanged hands but God’s pay, in this case, filled my purse (heart) and caused great joy.
The FamilySearch system informs us when others add or delete from families we are working on, as well. That is how I knew that someone had added to what I had done. The prophet Malachi stated the significance of God’s pay and the blessings we can expect for doing the work he has required of us. In many cases the pay is delayed, delayed until we get to the other side but God does not forget to bless those deserving of His blessings.
There is a story about a hat being passed around the congregation to take up offerings for a visiting minister. Soon, it was returned to him …embarrassingly empty. Slowly the minister inverted his hat and shook it meaningfully. Then, raising his eyes heavenward, he exclaimed, “I thank you, Lord, that I got my hat back from this congregation.” Obviously the congregation did not feel that he had done God’s work. “Who does God’s work will get God’s pay. However long may seem the day, However weary be the way, No mortal hand, God’s hand can stay, He may not pay as others pay, In gold, or lands, or raiment gay, In goods that perish and decay; But God’s high wisdom knows a way And this is sure, let come what may, Who does God’s work will get God’s pay.” (Anon) God’s payday may not even be within the boundary of mortality, there are good Christian people who have struggled in poverty all the days of their lives and may have died with the same rags on their back as they wore and worked in, sweating and toiling in the field the day before they passed. If a lowly sparrow doesn’t fall from the sky without God noticing, we can be assured that not one of His sons or daughters will either.