Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

Now that we live along the Jersey Shore, Kim and I can pop over to a boardwalk or beach just about anytime we want without too much hassle or too long a drive. We think it’s great!   All year long we are able to walk the boardwalks or even go out on the sand.   And now with summer upon us, we look forward to afternoons spent in the water, swimming in the ocean and riding the waves! In fact, just last Saturday Kim, Nathaniel, and I went down to Ocean Grove, one of our local Shore towns.   I had heard that the water had become relatively warm just a few days before (which probably meant 68-70 degrees for this time of year). To our surprise, however, the night before the water temperature had dropped significantly. A different current must have come in bringing the water temperature down to 60 degrees. Although Nathaniel got into the water, that was a bit too cold for me.   When I needed to cool down, I went to the shower up on the boardwalk.   At Ocean G...

Earlier this year I spent some time looking up flowering plants that deer supposedly don’t like to eat.    One of those that came to the top of the list was the geranium. So, based on the information I received via the Internet (which we all assume is 100% reliable!), I planted four nice size geraniums in a section of our front yard.   And for a number of weeks, everything was fine. I thought the information I had received was correct. The deer weren’t eating my geraniums.   Until one morning…I’m sure you know where I’m going.   Yes, one morning I noticed that one of the geranium plants was missing its flowers. When I got closer I saw that, although the plant itself was still in tact, the flowers were gone. Just the leaves and flower stems were left.   A very neat looking job!   The next week, one of the plants was missing altogether—until I found it sitting just a couple of feet away again, ripped out of the ground with the plant in tact and just...

With Father’s Day upon us, it’s natural for many of us to think back to our childhood days with our dads.   Many of my memories of my dad (who passed away in May 2014) are tied to the house in which my siblings and I grew up. In fact, once having purchased that house in 1963 (for $19,000!), it was the only house my dad would live in for the rest of his life. Having been built in the 1920’s there was always lots of work to be done around the house.   And, although he grew up in an apartment in the Bronx, somehow my dad learned how to do plumbing, electrical work, and roofing. He even figured out how to lay a foundation and put up walls—all from books and magazines (after all, this was long before YouTube!). Somehow he figured out how to close in the screened porch to add a family room and how to expand the garage to make room for all of our stuff! The house I grew up in...3 Park Ave. Monsey, NY   Most of all, I remember my dad adding bedrooms to the house as o...

I know that the title of this Pastor’s Devotion makes most people think that I’m writing about that period of time when one’s grown children move out and leave mom and dad to live alone in their “empty nest.” However, that’s not what I have in mind. Rather, I’m thinking about the robin’s nest that was built in a very odd spot along the side of our house. Instead of building her nest in a bush or a tree, this robin built her nest on top of our electric meter, only a couple feet off the ground. It was a spot that left her nest very much exposed to danger. When I first came across the nest, it was empty. A day later there were two little blue eggs in the nest.   For the next couple of days, whenever I went near it, the mother bird would fly to a nearby tree and make a racquet, yelling at me in her bird language, trying to chase me away.   And, I would oblige. After all, I wanted to see the babies hatch and see how the mother bird would care for them. At the same time, howeve...