Ground Hog Day

Groundhog Day is a couple of days away.   It is not a holiday in the area where I live, but I suspect those in Pennsylvania are getting ready to see what Punxsutawney Phil will predict about when winter will end.    While I cannot predict what that Groundhog will say about the length of winter,  I for one hope that winter ends sooner rather than later. 

There are all sorts of signs that people use to predict the weather.  My Grandpa Perry used to plant his garden each year according to the signs he saw in his Farmer’s Almanac.  Others will observe the nuts collected by squirrels saying they will predict how harsh a winter we will have.  I also have heard folks say that if you hear thunder in the winter you better watch out  because that is a sign of  snow coming  in a few days.

We have some sophisticated technology today to predict the weather like weather radar and weather satellites.   We can get the weather forecast anytime and most anywhere thanks to the internet and the Weather Channel.  Despite all this technology, sometimes the weather forecasters get the weather forecast correct and sometimes they are wrong. 

I have no idea what is the intelligence level of the groundhog.   The weather forecasters on television certainly have a degree and knowledge  in a field I know little about.    Despite the best of weather forecasts, none of us truly knows what the future will bring.  Ecclesiastes 8:7 puts it this way:

Since no one knows the future who can tell someone else what is to come?

While we might not know what the future holds for the weather or for our lives, how good it is that we know who holds the future?   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   Lord of God,  your love is sure and steady in summer and winter, on cold days and on hot days.   As we face the days ahead,  help us trust in you and your providential care;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.  

Telling Our Story and His Story

I was pleased and surprised to receive a unique Christmas  gift from my oldest daughter, Heather and her family a few weeks ago.   While I appreciate getting gift cards, a new tie, or a new shirt,  this gift was one that  allowed me to give a part of myself.   There is a web site out there called StoryWorth where a person is prompted to write stories once a week for 52 weeks (one year) from a question that is emailed to you each week.  The recipient of the email then either answers the question in written form or they can call into a phone number and verbally answer the question.  When the 52 weeks are over,  StoryWorth prepares all of these stories in a book form and sends it to the giver of the gift.    The questions that Heather and StoryWorth have sent so far have brought tears and laughter as I tell stories about my Mom, my Dad, my favorite childhood toys, and other things. I am enjoying the process.  All of us have an interesting  story to tell about a subject that we know much about, and that subject is ourselves. 

One of the things that I have been reminded of as I have written these stories of my life is of the working of God woven throughout every segment of  my life.   Throughout the years of my story is His story, God’s story stirring and working  often in ways unseen.    A doctor tells my Mom while she carries me in the womb that I will be born either dead or deformed… a family friend just happens to reach down into the muddy waters of a farm pond at the right spot and rescue me as I am  drowning… a youing teenage boy invites me and my family to attend the United Methodist Church he attends and I give my life to Christ at that church a few years later…  a beautiful woman named Ann  who I now call my lovely wife just happens to sit directly in front of me at a church homecoming dinner.    Some may call those momentous events in my life coincidences or simple irony.    I see them as the truth of  what Jesus says in the Gospel of  John:  “my Father is working still.”     Throughout the course of my ordinary life is the extraordinary presence of God moving and working.   And you know what?    If you really think about it,   I think that perhaps you will see the same.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God, thank you for giving me life and for the gift of new life in Christ.  Thank you for all the ways seen and unseen  that you continue work in the events of my life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  

Birds Around the Bird Feeder

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog may recall that while we do not have traditional pets around our home we do have many birds that visit our  6 bird feeders.  In all the seasons of the year, the birds visit regularly and consume over 40 pounds of bird seed each month. 

I was noticing the other day several birds gathered around one of our bird feeders.  What stood out for me is that while all the birds were different, they all found sustenance at the same bird feeder from the same food.   That was a lesson for me about people and the life in Christ.   While all of us are different from each other in our color, gender, and viewpoints,  all of us find food for our soul in Christ Jesus.   The apostle Paul says in Galatians 3:28: 

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

A minister of the gospel many years ago put it this way:  “We may all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.”     The birthday of that pastor was a few days ago.  You may have heard of him.  His name was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Have a joy-filled week.-  

Randy L. Wall

Prayer:    O God, I confess that sometimes I focus on the ways I am different from others than how much we have in common.  Forgive me, Lord, and help all of us to know the unity found in you; through Christ  our Lord. Amen. 

12 Days of Christmas or 12 Years?

 Somewhere along the way I recall hearing about a woman who lived to take her Christmas tree down on Christmas afternoon.    She was in a hurry to get Christmas over with.    I suspect that her number are legion.   There are a lot of people who are eager for Christmas to be over and done for all sorts of reason.   While many of you have already put away your Christmas decorations in storage and have exchanged those gifts that did not fit or you did not like,   I want to offer a gentle reminder that officially Christmas does not end until January 5.   That is the 12^th day of Christmas that is immortalized in the song of the same name.    Tradition has it took 12 days for the wise men to travel to Bethlehem once they saw the star in the heavens.   Obviously, travel was not as speedy in those days as it is today whether by train, plane, or automobile.  Some biblical scholars say it have have taken years for the wise men to travel from their far country to worship the Christ child.  

It occurs to me that the journey of the wise men to the Christ child is  metaphor of sorts of the journey people  make to Christ in their own lives.   While some people come to Christ when they are a child or a teenager, others do not come to Christ until they are advanced in years.   While I became a Christian when I was a teenager, not everyone does.    I think of baptizing a man named Bobby when he was 65 years of age months before he died and of baptizing Ray in the waters of an area lake when he was in his late 70’s.    I give thanks to God for Bobby, Ray, and people like that who make the journey to Christ.  While they might be more like the tortoise than the hare in that ancient fable,  I am glad I got to share in their journey.    One final word:  when the wise men arrived to worship the Christ child, they began a new journey of telling others about Christ in word and deed.   That is a journey that ends only at the grave.  Have a joy-filled week.--    Randy L. Wall

Prayer:    O God,  I give you thanks for the wise men and their journey to the Christ.   I give you thanks for my journey to Christ and for the journey that awaits me in the future for Christ.  Help to live for you and to live like you;  through Christ our Lord.   Amen.    

Fresh as a New Fallen Snow

One of the gifts of a freshly fallen snow this time of year is that everything looks all brand new.  With or without snow, a new year is the same.   It is a brand-new day and a brand-new time as we venture forward into this new year of 2018.    While we can look behind us and see all the joys and sorrows of 2017, we know not what this new year will hold.      When you ride down the mountain roads of North Carolina, you can only see as far as the next curve in the road.   This new year of 2018 is much the same.   We can only see so far, and we know not joy and challenge will wait around the next bend.   

Some of you are probably glad to see a new year come because of good things you anticipate in 2018 such as graduations, weddings, and other accomplishments.   Others of you perhaps feel a sense of fear about this new year as you see storm clouds gathering on the horizon of your life.   Still others feel a sense of relief that 2017 is over because of troubles, tragedies, and challenges that were your lot for the past year.    

The apostle Paul knew his joys and challenges.    He knew the joy of being a missionary for Christ Jesus and spreading the gospel to many parts of his known world.  However, Paul also knew challenges such as trial, arrest, beatings, and imprisonment.   While Paul was in prison, he wrote the following words to the Philippian Church: 

¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3: 13-14) 

Whatever may have been your experience of 2017 and whatever you may anticipate 2018 to be for you, I pray that we may go forward in God and with God in the days before us.  A blessed new year to one and all. -   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God, thank you for the gift of this new year.   Help me to go forward knowing that whatever the future may hold you go with us; through Christ our Lord.  Amen.