Sunday, November 17, 2002
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Sunday, November 17, 2002 |
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Take a moment to marvel By
REV. DR. DAVID L. CHANCEY My friend Sam Orr is pastor of Hardwick Baptist Church near my hometown of Milledgeville. His parents, Sam and Doris, are part of our congregation and I'm privileged to be their pastor. Sam recently wrote in his church newsletter an article about "marvelling" and I thought Thanksgiving time was a good occasion to pause and marvel at God's many blessings. He wrote: "The DOT recently resurfaced my part of Vinson Highway and they brought out some kind of machine to clear the edge of the road. It reminded me of how much I miss dirt roads. "We used to wander the countryside on the old dirt roads that had huge washboards in them. The common name is ruts. About once a month after a good rain, the county would come around and scrape the road and clean out the ditches. "We could hardly wait 'til they got through so we could go walking in the fresh dirt. The only thing better was walking in a newly plowed field. "My brothers and often some cousins took many a summertime journey down these dirt roads that were filled with wonder. We found wild apples that we called horse apples, persimmons, plums, blackberries, dewberries, old tires that could be rolled for miles and plenty of vegetation such as poison oak and thunderwood. "I heard some folks talking once about something the old folks used to do on Sunday afternoons. They did something called Marveling. They would go out sometimes alone, sometimes as couples or as entire families and walk the roads and fields looking for rocks, wild flowers, shells, four-leaf clovers and such. They would collect them and bring them home as treasures. Isn't that a neat thing to do? "One other place that I liked on a marveling trip was the railroad tracks. I do not know why but there is a mysterious attraction that boys have in train tracks. "The best thing I ever found while waking the rails was a little country church by the tracks in a small community known as Welcome All. I went to that church as a child and discovered some special people praying and singing and sharing the scriptures in love and devotion to God." For what do you marvel this Thanksgiving? I marvel at God's beautiful creation. I marvel at God's rich mercy and bountiful provision. I marvel at the blessing of my wife and children. I marvel the gift of other family members. I marvel the gift of this church family. I marvel the gift of Jesus. I marvel the gift of laughter. Life gets too busy and too serious. We need to laugh more. Somebody said that adults laugh maybe 15 times a day, while children laugh maybe 400 times a day. I heard about a little boy who was standing at an escalator in the big department store, just watching the steps and the handrail as it went around and around. One concerned shopper walked over and said, "Son, are you lost?" He said, "no, ma'am," and he never took his eyes off of the handrail. "You're not lost? Then what are you doing?" "I'm just waiting for my gum to come back around." Oh, to have the wonder of a child once again. That would be just marvelous. As Thanksgiving approaches, why not take a moment to marvel? (Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, 352 McDonough Road, Fayetteville. The church family invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m.)
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