From the Pastor’s Heart

We do it every four years, at least those of us who have a driver’s license; we must go and get our picture taken for our driver’s license. It is my turn once again this year. In fact, I need to go this month. Now I don’t know why but I keep my outdated licenses. I was looking at my collection the other day and was quite surprised to see how much I change in looks in a four-year period. Yikes! I can only imagine what I will look like when I go for my picture in 2014.

Some say the older I get the more I look like my father. Some even say I walk just like him. Although I think I have mother’s temperament.

My mother has a couple of boxes filled with old pictures stored in a closet. In that box is a picture of my dad when he was about 4 or 5 years of age sitting on a pony dressed in a cowboy outfit. There is also in that box a picture of my brother about the same age sitting on a pony in a cowboy outfit. It is almost impossible to tell which one is my dad and which one is my brother.

Nancy has often said that she is startled in the morning when she looks in the mirror and sees her mother looking back. Our grandson Mac looks just like his mother and Amy looks just like me. Our Granddaughter Victoria looks just like her mother and Lee Ann looks just like Nancy. It will be interesting to see whom the two new grandbabies will look like.

Genetics are interesting…they dictate how we look and often our medical history. What about our mannerisms? Are they learned or genetic? Can we blame our behavior on our genes?

Who do you look like? Are you able to identify specific characteristics that you inherited?

“God spoke: ‘Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature…’” (Genesis 1:26a The Message). Hmmm…. Does that mean God has gray hair and a white mustache?

Who do we look like? What is our nature? May we each strive for the same goal…. When others look at us they see the face of Christ! May others say I know who you belong to, I see the resemblance; you are a child of God.

May our prayer be the words found in Adelaide A. Pollard’s 1902 hymn, Have Thine Own Way, Lord:

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter; I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!

Blessings,

Pastor Russel…a forgiven and redeemed child of God.