11/06/2019
I love the birds probably thanks to my parents who always loved birds and fed them. I have followed suit most of my adult life. I have a feeder filled with sunflower seeds, one with thistle, one with mixed seed and of course with the sweet water in the summer that draws the hummingbirds into my yard.
I always knew that all this food brought to my yard lots of activity and enjoyment ofwatching the bird’s behaviors, but did not realize how much until I decided to stop feeding them before the cold weather arrived this year. I have never done this before but thought that since I would be away much of January, I did not want them to suddenly lose their source of food in the dead of winter.
I look out my window today, and it is eerily silent. Not even a single bird has come to roost anywhere in my yard. My dog, Ava, does not even bother to look out the window where she normally gazes for long periods of time. It is this same silence that sometimes happens in our lives when we lose someone significant in our lives. It seems so different, so empty. Something is truly missing.
This same sense of silence and emptiness is true when we lose a loved one. This past Sunday, we remembered our loved ones that we lost this last year as we celebrated All Saints Sunday. I hope that though we may mourn the loss of loved ones that we can know that God has provided the way forward for those who have gone to be with him, as well as for us who survive. There is hope if we will just open our hearts and minds to realize it. God receives those who have died but God is a God of the living. Turn an empty, lonely, sad heart to Him and the Holy Spirit will pick you up and feed you with exactly what your heart needs.
I know without certainty that come spring, I am going to fill my feeders again and am going to enjoy seeing the arrival of new families of birds milling about, singing, fussing with one another and resting in my yard.
Pastor Patti Napier
Archived Posts
One Final Scene About Scrooge
There was one more scene in Dickens’s novel that reveals something of what has happened to Scrooge over the years. I did not have time to share it on Sunday, but I believe it reveals a great deal about the regrets in Scrooge’s life....
What Jacob Marley Would Do,
If He Could Do It…
I thought about using the following for a benediction—since Jacob Marley was warning Scrooge about the danger of loving money and what it could buy. Ends up with the Cantata and everything else going on, I didn’t have the time. So here is what you might have heard if the sermon itself was 5 minutes shorter!
A Confirming Word on Old King Herod
I just want to echo what Rick said in his fine sermon yesterday (Nov. 23). Herod was a ruthless tyrant and skilled politician. When the Magi don’t report back to him, he decides to kill all the male children of Bethlehem under the age of 2. That’s one paranoid dude.
Power Without Conscience?
I ran out of room for this vignette in Sunday’s sermon. Remember the quote that could be the headline for Ahab and Naboth: “All that’s needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” The following reinforces that truth.
The Cars Are Looking for A King
I don’t have a thing to add to Pastor Jessica’s excellent sermon this last Sunday. The fable/parable she shared has been one of my favorites for all the lessons she pulled from it in her message. I was playing around with my friend Chat GPT and after several abortive attempts, we came up with the following modernized version of Judges 9:7-15.
The Lost Benediction
Depending on the length of the sermon, I try to add a little something extra in my benedictions. This week I wrote up a benediction but then realized we’d be singing and waving our umbrellas to some New Orleans jazz.
Change of Focus This Week
Instead of sharing with you about yesterday’s sermon I’d like to invite you to do some background reading for next Sunday’s “Only Murders in the Bible.” Seeing that it is All Saints Day this Sunday, we are going to look at the very first Christian martyr, Stephen.