This is the first time I have written for the religious page of The Kalona News, so I would like to say just a bit about myself. I grew up in Southeast Colorado on farms my father would rent by share-cropping. We were poor. My parents had come through the depression and the dust bowl. And it seems that they never did quite recover. I was the youngest of four boys, so I had lots of hand-me-down clothes, but few that were new.

But even though I count myself among the humble folk of the earth, I have had some wonderful opportunities. And I have known interesting and important people. Several years ago, I knew a woman at the Care Center in North English who, some fifth years earlier, was the Sunday School teacher for a boy who later became the Secretary of Agriculture under President Reagan. So at that time, I knew someone who knew someone who knew the President of the United States of America! Though the connections were rather remote, I felt honored to be connected in that way to the President.

There is another person, though, that does me a lot more good. That I should have the privilege of knowing and being known by the one God of the universe amazes me. To be connected to this greatest One ever thrills me!

Scientists have been trying to figure out how old our world is, and if the universe is expanding, and just for sure how DNA works. But I know the One Who not only knows the answers to these questions, but set up the whole system in the first place.

Economists are trying to figure out the future. Will the American economy continue to grow? Will there be another depression? What type of investment will produce the highest yield? But I know the One Who not only knows the answers to these questions, but knows everything about the future better than any person knows the past.

People in general are trying to figure out how to find contentment. How to really be happy. How to worry less. How to be really at peace internally and externally. But I know the One Who not only knows the answers to these questions, but has told us in the Bible everything we really need to know to have real joy.

So, has something grand and glorious and wonderful happened to me since my humble beginnings in Colorado that now allows me to be connected to God? Yes, and no. Yes— I am a Christian, and that means that I have been adopted into God’s family. No— because this great experience I have had is not something that is only for me or for just a few. God would like to adopt everyone into his family. That means everyone in the whole world, including each one who reads this article.

It is sometimes said of a person that they are “well connected,” meaning they have friends in high places. It is God’s desire that we be “well connected” by having as our friend the One Who is in the highest place. In the Wellman-Kalona area are many churches where people would be glad to help you become well connected.