Category: devotional

Snow had been falling steadily for seven hours and a foot of snow covered the ground.  The wind was pushing tiny crystals of ice into the tiniest of cracks.  Just before sundown a towhee along with a pair of cardinals and lots of juncos were stuffing themselves at a sheltered bird feeder.  They seemed to know it was going to be a long difficult night.

Towhees are not supposed to find themselves in this situation.  Had he stayed behind in the fall because of the birdfeeder?  Had he figured, “Why make the long journey?  There is plenty of food here.”  Where did the towhee spend the night?  Was he cold?  Was he sheltered?  In the morning after the storm had passed did he have access to food?   Had the owners of the birdfeeder remembered to clear the snow and refill the feeder.  In Luke 12 Jesus spoke of His father’s care for the birds.  In the same way our heavenly father makes sure we have access to our needs.  Storms come in life and when they pass God is still there.  He always was there.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 9, 2001

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So I figured I would get a Christmas haircut just in case people wanted to take pictures around the tree.  I went early to the barbershop – 8:15.   But there were already four really old guys there, one in the chair and three waiting.  While I was waiting two more old guys came in.  The gray hair on the floor around the barber chair was piling up – not a dark hair to be seen.

Old guys get a senior discount – only 12 dollars.  But the first guy gives her a twenty and says, “Keep the change. Merry Christmas.”  So the second guy gets out of the chair, gives her a twenty and says, “Keep the change. Merry Christmas.”  The third guy does the same.  So it was my turn.  By now there are three old guys watching.  What could I do?  Did I want these crotchety old guys to think that I was either a jerk or unsuccessful in life?  So much for the senior discount!  I learned a life lesson.  Never get a haircut a few days before Christmas.

Life is full of learning experiences.  A lady was in line ahead of me at a Kmart checkout.  She was coughing over and over into her hand.  Then she picked up that pen-like thing to sign for her credit purchase.  Well, I quickly put my credit card back in my wallet and paid in cash.  See, I do learn.  Another thing I learned along the way there is no better life than a life in Jesus.  He provides peace, resolution and a fantastic out of this world future.  So come with me.  Learn the same lesson from an old guy whose gray hair is on the floor mixed in with lots of other old guy’s hair.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 23, 2015

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Tis the season for Christmas programs.  Our schedules are filled with The Messiah, Readings of the Night Before Christmas and many children’s choirs.  We passed a church this morning that had so many cars in the parking lot they were parked four deep.  It would be a while before some people got out.

Some time ago I saw a choir where the children knew all the words and were spot on coming in and out when they were up.  But there was something wrong.  Something was missing.  And then it hit me.  The children were not smiling and there was little joy being expressed.  They might as well have been singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.   The joy of Christmas isn’t so much the technical prowess of the choir but the emotion expressed.  The children were prepared in their heads but not their hearts.

Oh Holy Night is only moving when the singers are moved.  The Hallelujah Chorus is only wonderful when you cannot keep yourself in your seat but have to stand, not because it is convention, but because God is so great and so mighty.  I have to say that this weekend I did hear and watch a mother and daughter sing a duet about Jesus Our King that caused me to well up; it was so full of love.

Jesus really is Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, The Prince of Peace.  I heard someone sing wonderful counselor.   He is a wonderful counselor but that is not what Isaiah was saying.  Jesus is Wonderful period.  Wonderful is not an adjective modifying counselor.  Wonderful is His name.  He fills our hearts with His splendor and love and majesty and it is beyond comprehension.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 14, 2015

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Tonight I am watching my woods fill up with snow.  My dog does not think it strange for me to stand here.  And I have no promises to keep before I sleep.  Sorry Robert Frost.  I could not resist.  But like Frost I am filled with awe at the rugged beauty of tree arms holding snow instead of leaves.  Under the white blanket myriads of furred creatures sleep with their noses tucked in for a long winter’s nap.  Chickadees, tufted titmice, juncos, gold finches, cardinals, blue jays and woodpeckers filled up in anticipation of a muffled night of softness.  It’s a sweet thing to be tucked in on a New England night with the crackling of the fire and the shimmering shadows on wooden walls.

These are times when all I wish to do is thank all my friends for their care.  My family for their love and my Jesus for His promises that not only will this never end but it will grow better as millennia pass.  How can it be that it is so difficult to spread the Gospel?  I am not only thinking about people whose lives are so busy they can’t pause to ponder the joys.   But I am thinking of those who have grown up thinking they are Christians and yet still harbor doubts of their salvation.

The only conclusion I can come to is it is just too good to be true and we are told when something is too good to be true it isn’t true.  But in this case it is all true.  The Gift of God is eternal life.  According to the dictionary a gift is “something given to somebody, usually in order to provide pleasure or to show gratitude.”   Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”   Luke 12:32

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 30, 2016

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We took our walk this evening after sundown and darkness had settled in for the night. This is a great time of the year.  Many of our neighbors have already decorated their homes for the holidays with a vast array of lights.  We do not have street lights so the homes are extra beautiful with no competing light.  One house has brightly lit angels in the yard.

As we walked along I thought of a passage in II Chronicles 3 talking about Solomon decorating the home He built for the Lord.  “He decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.”

The luminosity in our neighborhood is beautiful.  I also thought of somethingPaul wrote to Timothy about decorating our lives.  Instead of lots of external gold he counseled us to decorate our lives with good works and modesty.  Just think about how beautiful people are that are kind and unselfish.  In college one of the guys had a large purple birthmark on his face.  One year at Thanksgiving he announced that he was having it removed.  We were dumbfounded.  He was so kind and so Christ-like we saw no need for him to do that.  We thought he was handsome because of the kind of person he was.  We ceased to see the birthmark because he was so decorated with good works.  He was a quality person.

This is the season for decorating.  This is the season to be thankful, generous, forgiving and kind.  This is the season to be beautiful.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 1, 2015

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Robert Frost wrote, “Not yesterday I learned to know the love of bare November days before the coming of the snow.”  “The desolate, deserted trees, the faded earth, the heavy sky.”  “These dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; She (my sorrow) loves the bare, the withered tree . . .”

I am so glad we live on a tilted earth.  Without the tilt we would live without the seasons.   For six years my wife and I lived almost on the equator at 4,000 feet of elevation.  It was delightfully the same every day.  We never saw it colder than 62 nor warmer than 82.  I missed the crispness of 40 degree mornings.  I missed the tang of winter on my nose.  I missed scoping a thin sheet of ice from the birdbath and peering at the out-of-focus world on the other side.There are those who describe heaven as a monotonous place of perfect everything.  Will we never see the skeletons of maples reaching high above the earth against a gray sky?   However, astronomers tell us there are thousands of Goldilocks planets in our galaxy.  Surely some are tilted and some will have autumn for us to leaf peep and walk with our feet scuffling through noisy piles of brown leaves.

Eternity is filled with an endless variety for us to be endlessly mentally stimulated to learn and understand the beauty of life.  How grand to see layer upon layer into its quarks, hadrons and leptons.  God is a scientist and to be like Him is to quest the depth of how and what things are.  We know why.  That was answered at Calvary.  All is for love.  There is nothing more profound. Understanding love will be our most intriguing enigma.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 17, 2015

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We’ve a bumper crop of acorns this year.  I can’t recall an autumn with more.  As my dog and I were walking this afternoon I never gave it a thought as we traversed the terrain under a wonderful shady oak.  And then it happened.  Right on top of my not-protected-by-hair head – kerplunk!   I was acorned.  It must be the reason we call October Fall.

Acorns are the promise of another generation of oaks.  They are heralds of hope as well as a present banquet for our squirrels.  One of my favorite authors wrote about acorns.  She said, “As surely as the oak is in the acorn so surely is the gift of God in the promise.”  When we hold acorns in our hands we hold giant oak trees.  When we read “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” we can start planning on what furniture we want where.  John 14.

Just in case I was beginning to forget I got hit on the head this afternoon by a promise.  I can start planning my heavenly library.  It’s real.  It’s mine.  My name is engraved on the bottom right hand corner of all the book covers.  They are mine.  I have the bump on the top of my head to prove it.

What’s your acorn?  What’s your promise?  Could it be John 3:16, I Thessalonians 4 or I Corinthians 15?   Actually the Bible contains a bumper crop of promises.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 9, 2015

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Long yellowish pine needles have softened the forest floor.  As the afternoon sun splayed its angled rays through the deciduous trees that are still holding onto their precious leaves, the path glows yellow adding a golden tint to the air itself.  My prized lab and I moved quietly over the needle-cushioned trail ascending to our favorite overlook.  To my amazement there was a padded folding chair awaiting me.  Perched on the ridge I could sit and look down on a pair of red-tailed hawks floating about looking for an evening meal.  Whoever it was who carried the chair to the top I send an anonymous thank you.  It was very much appreciated.  The 62 degree breeze with the warming rays of the sun on my arms was an elixir beyond description.

Returning to the bottom we crossed a dried creek that usually provided a place for my dog to quench her thirst.  I grew up watching westerns and remembered scenes of cowboys finding water after digging a hole in a wadi.  It was time to experiment.  So I dug and much to my delight about six inches down water began to seep from the edges of my excavation and soon I had a small drink for my lab.

So it is true.  Sometimes there is value in looking below the surface.  I have discovered this to be true with people.  Often I find students that are brighter than they look.  It’s also true with Bible study.  There are memory verses I learned in Kindergarten.  Because of familiarity I rarely gave them much scholarly thought because I thought I knew all that mattered.  Might I suggest there are potential serendipities to be had by looking twice, three times or four times at a familiar verse.  We just might find meaning we didn’t know was there.  That’s a treat.

Written  by Roger Bothwell on October 12, 2016

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The air is filled with the sound of leaf blowers.  It is the sound of now.   There was no such sound when I was a boy.  Then the air was filled with the smell of burning leaves.  It was a fantastic smell.  I realize why we cannot do it anymore but I still wish there was a law that said one day a year we could burn our leaves.  The tang of it filling one’s nostrils was better than any fragrance at Macy’s.   Nostalgia urges me to sneak into the backyard and burn just a tiny pile; just enough to once again savor the past.   Surely I could make it small enough the local authorities would not catch me.  It is then that the still small voice in my head says, “Remember Immanuel Kant.”

His Categorical Imperative is the ultimate moral code.  He wrote, “It is a moral law that is unconditional or absolute for all agents, the validity or claim of which does not depend on any ulterior motive or end.”  For my students I put it in my simple way of speaking.  “It is morally wrong for me to do anything it is not permissible for everyone to do.”

When one ponders it, it becomes but a variation of the Golden Rule.   Thus it is that sin can be anything that lessens the quality of my life and other’s lives.  I cannot throw a paper cup out my car window.  It is not for fear of the $200 fine, but for the fact that our world would look like a pig sty if everyone did so.  Morality can at times be complicated but most often it is simple enough for a child to grasp.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 18, 2015

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The acorns being crushed as one drives in and out of our driveway sound like we are making popcorn. The oaks must have enjoyed the dry summer because we have an abundance of acorns.  The squirrels are going crazy trying to cache them away for the coming winter.  They will be well fed during this January’s blizzards.

I love acorns. Holding them in my hand reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite authors.  She wrote, “As surely as the oak is in the acorn so surely is the gift of God in the promise.”  There are over 3500 promises in the Bible.   That’s a forest of good things to anticipate.  One of the last promises found in Revelation says, “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son.”  I don’t want to be greedy.  I don’t need to inherit “all” things.  I will be happy with forgiveness and eternal life with my loved ones.  But our heavenly Father is a lavish giver.  That’s a promise in Ephesians 2.   God isn’t content with giving us the basics.  He wants to give us “all things.”

Paul says what we will receive is beyond what we can now imagine.  The Gospel is a story of excess.  Excessive love, excessive forgiveness, excessive lifespan, excessive health, excessive intelligence, excessive power, excessive understanding and excessive happiness are just a few of the things we are promised.

Right now I am going to go out to my driveway and pick up a few oak trees and carry them about in my pocket today.  Then I will not forget how very much you and I are loved.  Oh, how grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 18, 2016

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