Happy New Year!

I would like to thank the session and the congregation for the generous Christmas gift. I appreciate your thoughtfulness!

I wish I had learned to speak a foreign language when I was younger. While it is never too late, it probably would have been easier when my brain was more like a sponge and less like a sieve. Different disciplines have a language. Music and math, for instance, have their own symbols. I gave up reading music when I switched from trumpet to guitar in junior high. I don't need to be able to read music to play guitar, but it would be a useful skill to have. Knowing the language of any discipline facilitates communication.

In Biblical studies, I learned all sorts of fancy words. But they are not always useful when I am working with people to understand a Bible passage. But there are words in Christian education that can be understood by even very young people, and these are the words that are truly essential to our faith.
Words like love, joy, and peace. Others are grace, mercy, and forgiveness. These words communicate the heart of God and a life built on wisdom. I am thankful we need not all be scholars to understand the core teachings of our faith.

“...you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”

Matthew 11:25

Yours joyfully,

Paul