Nose Rings and Tattoos

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Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come. Psalm 77:18 NKJV

One year it almost never snowed, so as a contractor whose Winter income came from snow removal, I ended up working about six weeks in a warehouse among some pretty rough looking characters. I tried my best getting along, but those tattooed younger fellows, some of whom had nose rings and I had very little in common. As one of them put it, “Pete, did you ever wonder where all those guys who were sent to after school detention ended up working?” Now, I am the sort of person who tends to get cranked up over tattoos and nose rings, because the only critters with nose rings I knew were our hogs, so that they wouldn’t destroy their own pasture and tattoos were for the old guys who had been sailors in WW2. Yet, God didn’t seem to be as hung up as I was. Instead, He focused, not on how good or bad the other guys looked, but one whether I was telling them about Jesus.

As the weeks dragged by, I tried ignoring their less than wholesome jokes, and spent my lunch times, looking for a quiet corner to eat and read my New Testament. It didn’t seem even possible to talk to anyone about Jesus, till one day as we were emptying pallets from one of the trailers, the guy next to me earnestly asked in a whisper, “So what does hallelujah mean anyway?”  Rather than laughing, I delightedly did my best to explain and discovered that day, that God can give an opportunity at the most unexpected time to tell someone about His faithfulness and mercy. We just need to remind ourselves that God is delighted to accept some pretty strange characters into His family, because after all He sent Jesus to the cross to forgive, even me and you!

By the way, I loved this video about telling our grandchildren about the good old days Be sure to tell them that Jesus was the only thing good about some of those days!

Thankfulness for the Body of Christ

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For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12 ESV

My wife and I enjoy doing puzzles together, so I was delighted to find an almost new 1,000-piece puzzle with a Thomas Kincade painting on the box for a dollar at a yard sale. As soon as I got home, I dumped the puzzle out and eagerly began working to piece it together. Because of the complexity of the design, I didn’t at first realize, but eventually it became clear that, though my puzzle was almost new, it had been put into the wrong box! That puzzle reminds me of how in spite of God’s design, we sometimes struggle to find where we fit. In today’s verse the Apostle Paul tells us that together we are the Body of Christ and each of us is a part. Fortunately for us, God puts the correct picture on the box, (the Bible) and second, we are each intricately designed to be put into exact the position for which God designed. Paul gets very detailed about those parts, calling some of us eyes, some ears and others, hands and feet. Some of us who suffer from low self-esteem are encouraged by realizing that we too are a valuable part. However, we also need to remember that discovering our usefulness also means finding how our being connected to others gives us the opportunity to serve them. Trying to find how we fit in the church, without being thankful for people around us, is like our putting our puzzle together with the wrong picture on the box!

Though, people will usually take time to thank God for their blessings, why not go beyond just being thankful for how we have been blessed and take the time to give thanks for how God has blessed others, who He has connected to us. We just might be amazed at how being thankful, will clear our vision and help us to see them as part of the beautiful puzzle that God has designed called the Body of Christ!

"The beginning of men's rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart." 
Francis Shaeffer
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

Thoughts While Decorating the Tree

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And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 
1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV
As we put the tree back up again
A bit earlier this year
And bring out our decorations
Little treasures mixed with tears

First will be the manger scene 
Then comes an angel and a clown
They help me to remember friends
While I build our Christmas town 

And I wonder where that past has gone
While I work here all alone
Now, I think I would be kinder
If I had only known

That all that stuff I thought so dear
Along with youth would soon be gone
And only mercy, love and grace
Remain as we move on

Thoughts While Decorating the Tree
by Peter Caligiuri
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