This morning the sun was warm and Zella was chasing a particularly heavy stick. My coffee was hot, offering a gentle yet bracing introduction to the day.

“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.”  (The Teacher in Eccl 11:7).

Everything about it was memorable.  Everything about the simple meal was enjoyable.  The sky was red and pink and orange, the lake resting. 

“So, if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.”  (The Teacher in Eccl 11:8).

The Teacher helps life slow down.  Can we do that?  Slow down and see life? 

“The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.” (The Teacher in Eccl 9:17).

The Teacher can at times be a bit of a buzz kill.  Snapping us back to reality with all the complexities of life; that sometimes good and sometimes bad are indiscriminate agents seeking a place to reside.  The Teacher is also clear, life is to be enjoyed, “Go eat your bread with joy... enjoy life with the wife whom you love… whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…”  (Eccl 9:7-10). 

And we are left with a description of life that is descriptive of the life that we experience.  And isn’t it enough to know that what we are experiencing is not some strange life anomaly but as common and predictable (?) as the sun rising or the brilliance of the stars in the deep watches of the night?   Putting it another way:  life will be brilliant, life will be decimating.    The Teacher’s solution, “Fear God and keep his commands, for this is the whole duty of man.”  (Eccl 12:13).

Services are at 9 and 10:30am as well as live streaming options.  Please be safe out there.  Please be respectful of others, especially when we disagree.  Don’t let this thing, this challenge rob us of this responsibility: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.” (1 John 5:1)

If you haven’t submitted a Thanksgiving video, we’ll need to receive it by Sunday, November 22 at info@timberwoodchurch.org

Can we allow ourselves the space necessary to say this is so hard?

I pray we will be sustained, encouraged, filled with the Spirit’s best.

Peace to you, I miss you.

John