Hello Friends,

The fourth of July means a lot of things for me. All of us celebrate with “bombs bursting in air” to commemorate the birth of our nation and remember the great men and women that made this nation come to life. It has another meaning for me. It was on the fourth of July, 1968 and forty one years ago that my father suddenly passed away... I remember shooting off bottle rockets and waving sparklers with the other kids kind of in a daze, wondering what it all meant. It made for me, the uncertainty of the sixties even more uncertain.

You know things are not really that different now from 1968. Back then the world was in transition. People of all ages were uncertain about the Vietnam War and whether long hair on guys was good or bad. There was an uncertainty about life in general. This was the generation that watched John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King all be gunned down. There were riots in our streets. Now add to that the death of my father and for me the world looked like a lonely, bleak, and probably dangerous place to live.

Today, forty one years later I still see the world pretty much as a lonely, bleak and probably dangerous place. But something has changed - or should I say something has changed me. I now know with certainty the God of a thousand generations that never changes. He has always been God and will always be God. He will never someday not be God. My father died but God is still God. Someday I will be gone but God will still be God to my children and grandchildren.

So, as another burst of light explodes above you, keep looking up. There is a God up there and you can be certain that He will be up there next year too, and the next and the next. Well, you get the point. If you have family with you, enjoy this holiday weekend with them. Life is uncertain. Who knows what the future will bring. God is certain and certainly life will go on to celebrate again.

Talk soon,

Pastor Steve Gray