Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

This past week I turned 62!  As I mentioned to a number of people, the best part of doing so is that I now get on the beach for free here in Long Branch, NJ. In fact, on my birthday I went to the beach in the afternoon and told the teenager who was checking for badges that I had my seasonal badge in my backpack, but that it was my birthday and had just turned 62. She kindly said, “Happy Birthday! You’re good to go!”  In other words, I no longer need a badge to get on the beach! I guess there are some benefits to getting older.    Do the benefits of getting older outweigh the challenges? After all, there are things I am facing in my body that I never had to deal with before. Keeping my body in shape is a little harder than it once was.  And, there seem to be new challenges at every turn, challenges that are the result of the aging process. Yet, there are also a lot of good things that come with age: becoming a grandfather, watching my children flourish, the growt...

Last week our grandson Jesse turned one year old. Not only that, but Jess has also become a walker!  It wasn’t like he just got up on his first birthday and ran across the room. Rather, for the past month or so he was taking a couple of steps here and there. Then, a couple of weeks ago, while we were together on vacation, he would take anywhere from five to ten steps to get to where he wanted to go, eventually going back to crawling.  When we saw him this past week, however, just after his first birthday, he had made walking his main mode of transport, getting up on his two feet, wobbling, and even running to get to where he wanted to go.   It’s an amazing process watching a baby move from crawling to walking.  They often begin by learning to stand and then transferring themselves from one place to another by holding onto furniture or whatever they can get their hands on. They may take the hands of someone nearby to help them move from one point to another. Soon...

This past week, Kim’s dad, Ronald Ericksen, passed away. “Dad” (as even I called him) was just about one month shy of his 89th birthday. Although not completely unexpected, we are all saddened by the fact that he is no longer with us. After all, we will miss his stories (many of which were on “the list”), his humor, his music, his words of advice, and most of all his kindness and love.   I knew Kim’s dad from the time I was about 14 years old—that’s about 48 years!  For many years, to me he was the song leader at our church who at times would lead a song with a tear in his eye, a board member, a Bible teacher, a helper to the youth ministry, and the husband and father in a family that would eventually become my family as well. He was always well respected and deeply appreciated for his integrity, steadiness, and spirituality.    Kim's mom and dad at Jonathan's wedding - July 2015 When I married Kim, I came to see her dad in new ways. Not only did he live out his...