Gary G. Smith, Pastor Valentine Presbyterian
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
We are nearing Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season. Truthfully, I am amazed at the number of people who work to make others find it hard to be thankful. You know the type. The neighbor who just knows that all the leaves in the neighborhood are yours through DNA identification, apparently, and you are thereby obligated to clean them out of their yard too. It seems they have an inherent hatred toward God’s beautiful, adorned trees and other plants during the fall season. I remember my grandfather told me once, after a particularly difficult conversation he had with a neighbor of the church my grandparents attended, who was upset about the bell ringing on Sunday mornings. My grandfather politely told the guy that the bell in the church had been ringing in the neighborhood since 1874, and it would continue to ring well past the lifespan of the grumpy neighbor and suggested the neighbor join him for church next Sunday.