From the Pastor’s Desk…

It has been an exceptional year for robins! I looked out my window a few weeks ago and there were EIGHTEEN of them on our church lawn -- EIGHTEEN! I can't remember seeing more than three or four there last spring. They were reveling in a good spring worm supply and filled the air with their melodious songs. The dogwood trees and forsythia bushes gave us a special show after such a long, gloomy winter, and the rhododendrons and mountain laurel are about to paint our world with lavender and white. Rains have replenished this part of our earth with life-givin water, grass is exceptionally green, nights are cool, days are warming and sun-filled.

Is any of this out of the ordinary, or am I just taking time to look a little more appreciatively at this lovely world of ours? Sometimes we accept the poet, Maya Angelou's invitation to "Stop...Be Silent...Just stop...Stop thinking, stop figuring, stop planning, stop analyzing....Stop. Just stop...and let God have the floor."

My, oh, my, what a show God has given us! Sometimes we notice it because we are slowed by illness or injury, which helps one see things passed by before. Sometimes, though, life is just so ordinarily extraordinary that it demands our attention.

Summer is almost here. There will be the temptation to speed one's pace and accomplish all those tasks waiting to be done. (Lots of them are mentioned in this newsletter!) I encourage you to take a more leisurely course through them. Take time to look around you. Don't miss the beauty of this good earth, the laughter of children home from school, the melody of a cardinal, or the uniqueness of your spouse or friends. Hone your senses. Let God's world and people share their glory. And give God thanks for it all.

Hark! The roses are about to bloom!

Enjoy the grace of summer's beginning. See you in worship, at the Strawberry Festival and all the other places we are the church!

Your pastor,

W. Charles Naugle