December 2007

From the Desk of Pastor Tom…
I bring you greetings from my family to yours for this blessed Christmas season! We are so overjoyed to be a part of the family of First Presbyterian Church. God has, indeed, blessed us in abundance through each of you!

I was thinking the other day about the stuff that really matters in life: family, friends, church. I was thinking about how knowing Jesus Christ matters supremely and makes all the difference in life. Having Jesus in my heart changes everything. He changes how I see myself and how I see others. He changes how I go about my life in this world. He gives me reason, hope, joy, peace, love. All words that come to our minds and fill our hearts especially at Christmas time.

My wife Jane has always liked solving crossword puzzles. She likes the challenge and finds joy in the victory of filling in all of the spaces. I’m not much into puzzles. I could never solve the questions like “A former copper coin of India.” I have no idea what that is. Those puzzles are frustrating to me. The answers stay hidden from me.

There is one puzzle though that I do like. It’s not really a puzzle, I guess. I like those pictures that you stare at for a while until you finally see the picture hidden within. Do you know the ones I’m talking about? You’re supposed to pick a point on the picture and look at it without blinking for 60 seconds. At first you don’t see anything but jumbled colors, swishing together seemingly in random thoughts. But then, after a few minutes (just before you go cross-eyed) the picture of a dinosaur or a great ship comes jumping out at you. Those puzzles are great. I can do them. The answer becomes obvious to me. And the great thing about those puzzles is that once you see the dinosaur or the great ship you never again look at the picture in the same way.

To me, Christmas is like one those pictures. When you first look at it, there’s all these jumbled colors, swishing together in random thoughts. But behind it all there’s something more. But what you have to do, you see, is fix your eyes, focus on a singular point and it all comes into focus. And you’re guaranteed to never look at things quite the same way again.

Here’s wishes to you, from my family to yours, that you’ll fix your eyes on Jesus, see Him in everything this Christmas, and that you’ll never again be quite the same!

Keep your hearts open and your faith strong,
Pastor Tom