Bethlehem United Methodist Church

06/22/2026

06/22/2026

Meditate at Eight: Ponderings

Last night, as I was settling into bed, I felt a stray, uninvited hair on my chin. Without turning on the light, I reached over to my nightstand, grabbed my tweezers, and plucked the offending hair. Mission accomplished. Or so I thought. But somehow, in the process, I dropped the tweezers.

I turned on the light and searched the bed. Nothing. I searched the floor. Nothing. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the bed and beneath the nightstand. Still nothing. The tweezers had seemingly vanished into thin air. Eventually, I gave up and went back to sleep.

Then, sometime during the night, I adjusted my pillow and felt something strange. Curious, I reached into the pillowcase. There, tucked all the way at the bottom, were the missing tweezers.

How they got there, I have no idea. Please tell me stuff like this happens to you!

This morning, as I pondered, I thought about Jesus' parables of lost things—the lost son, the lost sheep, and the lost coin. But my situation wasn't exactly like any of those. The tweezers didn't make demands, wander away, and then return home to a waiting parent. I didn't have a hundred tweezers, leaving the ninety-nine to search for the one that was lost. I didn't search diligently until I found them. I found them by accident after I had given up.

The thing is, my tweezers weren't exactly lost. They just weren't where I expected them to be. And perhaps that's true of many things in our spiritual lives.

Sometimes we feel as though we've lost God's presence. We search through books, sermons, podcasts, and spiritual disciplines such as prayer and meditation, wondering where God has gone. We look in all the places where we think God ought to be.

The truth is that God hasn't moved. It's that we're not looking in the right places. Or, perhaps more often, we're looking right at him, but can't see him.

At the end of Luke's Gospel, in one of my favorite Bible stories, the disciples on the road to Emmaus believed they had lost Jesus forever. He was walking beside them, but in their grief and disappointment, they couldn't see him for who he was. In Genesis, Jacob awoke from a dream and declared, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."

How often do we make the same discovery?

We search for peace when peace is already being offered. We search for purpose when God is already at work in the ordinary moments of our lives. We search for God's voice while he is quietly speaking through a friend, a scripture passage, a sunset, or a simple act of kindness.

If this were a parable ("The Parable of the Hidden Tweezers"), I think I would also add some words about where they were found.

In the pillow. In my place of rest. Perhaps there's a lesson there as well. Sometimes the answers we seek aren't found through more striving, more searching, or more frantic activity. Sometimes they're discovered when we rest. When we stop looking everywhere else and become attentive to what is already near.

The tweezers were never truly lost. They were ... hidden.

The kingdom of God may be more like a lost pair of tweezers than we imagine. We turn on every light, search every corner, and look in all the expected places. Then, in a quiet moment, we discover that what we sought was nearer than we knew. Not lost at all—just hidden. Ready to be found when we let go, lay down our heads, and trust him. Isn't it wonderful how God's grace often waits for us in the most unexpected places—sometimes even in the pillowcase beneath our heads?

Prayer: Lord, when I can't find you, remind me that you aren't lost and you're not hiding from me. Open my eyes to your presence in unexpected places, even when that place is right next to me. Teach me to trust that you are nearer than I know. Amen.

06/22/2026

Here's the devotional polished from your draft:

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Today's devotion is from Genesis 16:1–15.
Abraham and Sarah were desperate and advancing in age. God had promised Abraham that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars, yet Sarah remained barren. When Sarah offered Hagar as a second option, Abraham was convinced this was how God's promise would be fulfilled — that this was his path to becoming the father of many nations.
Yet God had not forgotten. Even when Hagar fled into the wilderness, the angel of the Lord found her and said, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude." God saw her in her affliction and met her there.
Many times, we too grow impatient. Unsure of what God is saying, we run ahead of Him and manufacture our own solutions. Today, God invites us to trust not only in His plan, but in His timing.
May we wait on the Lord with faith and patience. Amen.

06/22/2026

Meditate at Eight: Ponderings

I was randomly listening to music this morning, and one of the songs was "Hurt," sung by the late Johnny Cash. I'm typically not a Johnny Cash fan, but this song, sung near the end of his life, is haunting. It's about a man who has lost himself in the pain of life, to the point where pain is almost like a friend.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18).

Some songs linger because they touch a truth we would rather avoid. This song resonates because it speaks of pain, regret, loss, and the uncomfortable reality that life leaves marks on all of us. It's not a song we want to sing, but it's also one difficult to ignore. Because all of us know what it feels like to lose at least a small part of ourselves to pain.

Most mornings, we do a fairly good job of carrying on. We go to work. We run errands. We smile at neighbors. We answer emails. We show up for family and friends.

Yet beneath the surface, many people carry hurts that others never see. Some are physical. Some are emotional. Some come from things done to us. Others come from things we wish we had done differently. And, as the years pass, we gather scars.

The psalmist understood this reality. Scripture is surprisingly honest about human pain. The Bible doesn't pretend that faithful people are happy all the time or avoid hurt. David knew it. Jeremiah knew it. Peter knew it. Even Jesus wept at the death of a friend.

Yet Psalm 34 offers a remarkable promise: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”

Notice it doesn't say God is close only to the strong, the successful, or the people who have everything figured out. God is close to those in pain. Close to those carrying regrets. Close to those navigating loss. Close to those wondering if healing will ever come. Close to those who hurt.

And, even though we struggle to feel his presence, that's when God comes even closer to us. Not because pain is good. But because Christ meets us there. And where Christ is present, healing remains possible.

Prayer: Compassionate Lord, you know the hurts I carry, both seen and unseen. Draw near to me in places of grief, regret, and pain. Bring healing where it is needed and hope where it has grown dim.
Amen.

06/22/2026

Today's devotion is from Genesis 17.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when God appeared to him and reaffirmed the covenant He had made years before. In this remarkable encounter, God changed Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah — signaling a new identity rooted in divine promise. God commanded Abraham to circumcise every male in his household as a sign of this covenant, declaring, "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you." He also announced the impossible: Sarah would bear a son, Isaac. Abraham, ever the practical thinker, "fell on his face and laughed." Sarah, too, found the promise difficult to believe. Yet God's purposes are never thwarted by our disbelief or our age.
This covenant speaks to us today. God calls us to circumcise not our flesh, but our hearts — to cut away pride, doubt, and disobedience. "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart... so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart." A circumcised heart is a repentant heart, a surrendered heart, a heart that takes God's promises seriously rather than laughing them away.
May we walk faithfully in His ways and inherit every blessing He has promised. Amen.

06/13/2026

06/13/2026

Amy Jandrisevits spent years working as a pediatric oncology social worker and noticed something important. Many children living with disabilities, scars, medical conditions, or physical differences rarely saw themselves represented in the toys around them. So she decided to create something different. That idea became A Doll Like Me. Amy handcrafts custom dolls designed to reflect the child receiving them. That can mean matching limb differences. Birthmarks. Scars. Wheelchairs. Feeding tubes. Hearing devices. Or other features that make each child unique. For many families, the dolls became more than toys. Parents described them as moments where children recognized themselves in a positive way and felt included instead of different. Amy’s work expanded through donations so families facing financial challenges could still receive dolls. Over time, hundreds of children around the world received dolls made to look like them. What started as one person noticing that representation was missing eventually became a project built around helping children feel seen exactly as they are.

06/13/2026

Eight-year-old Bryson Kliemann had been collecting Pokémon cards since he was four years old.
In 2021, his four-month-old Labrador mix puppy, Bruce, became seriously ill with parvovirus, a potentially life-threatening disease that often requires expensive treatment.
As veterinary bills began adding up, Bryson overheard his parents discussing the cost.
Wanting to help, he came up with a plan.
Bryson set up a small stand outside his home in Lebanon, Virginia, and began selling some of his favorite Pokémon cards.
The cards were priced between five and ten dollars each.
Over two days, he raised roughly $400 toward Bruce's medical care.
Neighbors and community members soon heard about what he was doing.
Many stopped by to support him.
Others donated additional cards or offered financial help.
As the story spread, Bryson's mother created a fundraiser to assist with treatment costs.
Support arrived from people across the country.
Donations eventually grew far beyond the original goal, helping cover Bruce's care and allowing the puppy to recover.
After Bruce returned home healthy, Bryson and his family chose to use additional funds to help other pet owners struggling with veterinary expenses.
What began as a young boy selling his treasured Pokémon cards to save his puppy eventually grew into support for families facing similar challenges.

06/13/2026

In 2012, young cancer patient Jayden Barber had one wish. He wanted to meet the real Batman. His friends and family created a page hoping somehow the message would reach Christian Bale. It did. Instead of sending a short message or signed photo, Bale responded personally. He arranged for Jayden and his family to travel to Disneyland in California for lunch at Club 33. According to Jayden’s family, the plans were organized privately and they felt welcomed from the moment they arrived. During the visit, they talked about movies, superheroes, and whatever Jayden wanted to talk about. His mother later described the experience as feeling less like meeting a celebrity and more like spending time with old friends. People connected with the story because the moment was never presented as publicity. It was one family trying to create joy during an incredibly difficult chapter and someone choosing to show up in a meaningful way. What started as a child hoping to meet Batman became a day built around making sure he felt seen, celebrated, and treated like the hero.