












Mr. Clean-I Need Help With Some Tough Love




Plane Crash





Simple Silent Night

c. 1920

There was an old man with a vast art collection.  It grew year after year with van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, and Monet.  He loved collecting art and loved the beauty it brought into his home.   After his son became old enough to delight in his father’s work he began collecting also.  For years the two employed a vast assembly of art pieces and objects,  The pieces hung magnificently displayed in the house.  The son soon went off to college leaving the man to tend to the art himself.  As he walked by the paintings he was reminded of his son.

On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt (1868), a...

Shortly after he was informed that his son had died in action.  He was visited by a solider who knew his son.  The soldier presented the man with a painting he made while the two were stationed together.  The painting was far from professional but it became the man’s favorite.  He displayed it proudly and bolder that all the priceless art.  Soon after the man died. He left his collection to be auctioned off.  The auction started with the painting of his son.  All  brokers from near and far came to get a glimpse of the priceless paintings so they were shocked when the auctioneer  started with such a simple painting.  The bidding started with no gavel raised.  Finally a man in the front row raised his hand and bought the painting for $10.  When asked why, he said he knew the boy growing up.  The auctioneer closed the gavel to the astonishment of all the collectors.  In their amazement they asked what about all the other paintings?  The auctioneer said the man made it clear in his will whoever got the son’s painting got the whole collection.    No one comes to the Father except through me…….. compliments of Heritage Baptist Church..

Faith and Family

One of the most frightening things for me to do is to share my faith.  It is not necessarily hard from a worldly view so much as it is with my own children.  I have a child who lacks the social development of the children his age.  How do you explain  faith to a child who cannot look you in the eye and feel the emotional response that comes from trusting God?  How do you explain to other families in church that your son does feel loneliness.  He does not mean to be spontaneous or not respond to your emotions.  The measure of his friendships are based on  quality not the quantity. The quality of his relationships are strained daily even though everyday of his life has been a lesson in behavior or in social interventions.

I have to explain it in the easiest way I can for him.  You see he knows that Jesus died for his sins but he has a hard time grasping the beauty of that concept.  He hates the pain that Jesus suffered but, visualizing him on the cross between two criminals is the most powerful display of love he feels.  Just to know that Jesus, while on earth could forgive sin and immediately assure one of the men eternal paradise shows him what he needs spiritually.  I do not know if he feels the warmth and beauty of having God’s word to hold on to but I thank God that the bible gives us stories of unbelievable courage and love that I know he reads over and over.

Hide and Seek..God Knows


