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

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.)

Back

to News Home Page |