Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

My father-in-law said many times, “The weatherman is always right.” Then he would point out, if he or she says, “There’s a 50% chance of rain” or an “80% chance of snow” or “It’s going to be partly sunny,” whether or not it rained or snowed or was cloudy or sunny, they were right! After all, the weatherman/woman rarely gives a 100% definitive forecast.  And why is that? Is it because they are not good at what they do? Is it because they are trying to dupe their audience? Is it because they are trying to keep themselves in business?   I think we all intuitively know why forecasting the weather is so difficult: its unpredictability and our lack of control. Mother nature seems to have a mind of her own and no weatherman or woman is going to control her! We can watch for patterns and see the movement of air currents and such, but there is very little any person can do to control exactly how it will all shape up in the end. On the other hand, there is One who is able to contro...

Earlier this week when I was in the supermarket, I needed to buy toothpaste. So of course, I located the aisle with dental supplies and found the shelves with toothpaste…and, did I ever find toothpaste!  There were so many options to choose from I was literally standing there for five minutes trying to figure out which toothpaste I should buy. I could choose from “cavity-fighting,” “tarter-removing,” “whitening,” “breath-freshening”, etc., etc.  There was even one that was simply marked, “regular toothpaste.”  I had no idea what that meant. And, all of that was for just one brand!   Of course, that’s the way it is throughout our supermarkets here in America. Whether you’re buying toothpaste, cereal, or yogurt the options seem endless, forcing us into making all kinds of choices. At times it can seem like we have too many choices—so many choices that just going grocery shopping causes decision-fatigue.  We all know that life in general is filled with choices...

As many of you know, last March I came down with COVID-19 and was pretty sick for about three weeks. In fact, at times it felt like I’d never get better. Thankfully, I did. But one of the effects that has lingered with me for months has been the loss of my sense of smell. I remember how, over Easter weekend which was just after having been sick, Kim was baking an Easter bread and said, “Don’t you just love the smell of fresh bread baking?” to which I answered, “I don’t smell anything!” Then I realized that I couldn’t smell just about anything. Worst of all, I couldn’t smell my coffee brewing in the morning. In fact, I couldn’t even smell the coffee when I opened up the bag to make my morning coffee. For me, one of the best parts of my morning was gone!   Well, it’s been that way since last March until…just the other morning, as I came down the steps to go to the kitchen and prepare my breakfast and get the coffee that I had programmed the night before to drip, it struck me: I ...

This week, Kim and I received a picture of our grandson Jesse looking out the sliding glass doors of his home at snow that had fallen overnight where he and his parents live. As I looked at the picture (which some of you may have seen on my Facebook page), I realized that this was really his first time seeing (i.e., being aware of) snow. (He’s now about 17 months old.) In fact, as I looked more closely at the picture it struck me that Jesse was filled with a sense of awe and wonder in a way that only a child can be. After all, he had never seen this white stuff that was covering the ground!   Unfortunately, as we get older we too often lose our sense of awe and wonder. We grow so  accustomed to the world around us that, we no longer look at freshly fallen snow or a flower breaking through the ground or a budding tree as we once did. Things that were once new and awe-inspiring to us become commonplace. The things we may have once celebrated go almost unnoticed. Thus, we wa...