Newsletter Items

May 2021

Dear Friend,

Good day to you and warmest greetings in Jesus name. I hope your health is good and that life is treating you kindly. Chris and I are back in our home and both safely and happily so.

As a community of Christians, we are back in our spiritual home, the church in Constitution Road. How happy to be able to enjoy the distanced togetherness of a gathered congregation.

For so long we have not had so very much to be cheery about, or so it has seemed. I think we are now on the threshold of more normal and happier times.

Good cheer and happiness come to different people at different times and in different ways. Michael Mara had a smile as wide as the Tay after winning his seat in the Scottish Parliament. Callum Davidson punched the air with almost unbridled joy when St. Johnstone won their place in the Scottish Cup final. We express elation and happiness in an abundance of ways. We yell it. We tell it. We sing it and dance it and clap it. Add to that, we show it on our faces. When we are excitedly happy, we beam and our faces rejoice.

Years ago a group of miners were panning for gold in Montana. They found gold. Before going into the nearest town for supplies, they agreed together to keep their discovery a secret and not to share it.

As they were about to return to their camp, a group of men stood ready to follow them. This new group said, “You’ve found gold.” The prospectors responded suspiciously, “Who told you?” the response to that was clear, “No one. Your faces showed it!” A true story.  A little bit dated, but a good story. “Your faces showed it!”

I ask myself and put it to you, “Is the joy of sins forgiven, a relationship with Jesus, a return to church and opportunities to see fellow members and say, “Hello” to them, so genuinely real and so warmly felt, that it shows on your faces?”

The good news of being a Christian is too good to keep to yourselves. Tell it and show it. Let it be said of us, “Your faces show it.”

Blessings to you,

Alan

Your Minister