“I can’t believe this. I lost my phone again,” I complained to the Preacher. Accustomed to my ritual phone hunts, he sighed and continued playing Suduko on his tablet. Circling the living room, I ambled down the hall and migrated to the kitchen. In 2007, barely a decade prior, we …
A dozen years ago, after a visit to a distant friend, she sent a parcel. “What’d you forget?” the Preacher asked. (I lose things easily. Even my head, sometimes.) “Nothing!” I said, ripping the wrappings. Inside, nested in creamy packing material, lay a meticulously crafted stone Inuksuk, arms outspread. Precariously …
Several D words have sometimes linked themselves to our granddaughter’s name in the decade since her birth. Dinah-mite. Dynamic Dinah. Dina-sore. But the alliteration that always fits is Dinah Dancer. Before she could talk, the slight live-wire swayed, bounced and twirled to music she alone could hear. “Watch me, Nana!” …
Most great accomplishments, they say, happen because somebody, somewhere along the line, became angry enough to do something about what made them indignant. But like other explosives, anger requires careful handling and expert managing. Sometimes that means simply shutting up. “I always knew when you were mad,” my daughter Amanda …
The future sat beside me at the annual Christmas banquet of a community organization. Five fingers old, big eyes, bubbly and adorable. With her mother busy on her left, and the Preacher watching activities on my right, I engaged her in conversation. She’d already visited Santa and Mrs. Claus, perched …
If you’ve ever heard dozens of donkeys braying at once, you know what it does to one’s neck hairs. The word “cacophony” doesn’t begin to describe the din. It’s been almost four decades since I heard that sound. I’ve never forgotten. Thousands of formerly mistreated and neglected donkeys have been …
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27). In two words, Jesus identified the taproot of all strife: troubled hearts. In another two, he offered the solution: “my peace.” After a …
“Nana, why are there tears on your tree?” The third candle in the advent wreath, the pink one, represents joy. Not the passing gladness of the season, but the joy Jesus came to bring. Freeing. Stabilizing. Soul-lifting. Permanent. So why do I hang tears on our Christmas tree? The question …
Until he died, my friend, Dr. Phil (not the television personality) recalled the first time we met. Years earlier, a few days before Christmas, our family had come to sing carols at his daughter’s door. Phil and his wife Adeline had newly arrived in Canada. He told me he’d never …
On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2b Like the period of history before Jesus’ birth, the current season of history on our world’s timeline is not generally jolly. Darkness prevails. As the Jewish people then pined for their promised Messiah, Christ-followers today long …
