Music and lights, family, food and fellowship…Christmas washes over the land like a warm sigh. But the experience of Christmas changes as one ages. Gifts with my name on the tag took top spot in my earliest memory. Things shifted when I realized that Christmas meant giving as well; that …
I’m sorry. That’s all I can say to those who feel the joy has been sucked from their Christmas because they’ve encountered less-than-charitable Christians who stridently insist everyone use the phrase “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays.” What disturbs me most about that is that from what I’ve observed, the …
Thirty-six square feet. Nestled near our clothesline cross, under a towering maple, my tiny backyard retreat stands tall in the snow; a startling slash of crimson on an unblemished canvas. A tangible, colossal exclamation mark. The odd building with the duncecap roof and the screened lift-up sides sits just a …
“Crazy! Mercy! WOW!” Tears falling unchecked, the young husband sitting on the grass peered intently at the carrot in his hand, the fruit tray beside him, the sky overhead and the surrounding trees. He absorbed what he saw as though for the first time. His wife had just given him …
I don’t know much about buffalo, but they make me snicker. At the front end they’re all bravado: massive shoulders, barrel chest and beady eyes. But turn them around and their hindquarters are only slightly larger than my own, with a wannabe lion’s tail tacked on. God smiled, creating buffalo, …
“The reason grandchildren get along so well with their grandparents,” I heard someone say, tongue firmly planted in cheek, “is that they have a common enemy.” Our six live about an hour from us. Fortunately, on (almost) all things, the Preacher and I and their parents agree. We feel blessed …
Sometimes I forget that our four oldest grandchildren never knew their grandfather when he was healthy. Never saw him leap high into the air and toss a ball into a hoop. Never descended into a cave with him, hiked a mountain trail together, or knew him as someone who often …
“…no spot feels as warm or secure as the place where we’re surrounded by the people we love most; who love us most, in spite of knowing us best. The place we don’t have to deserve.”
How I love the blessed reminder that Jesus Christ left Heaven for earth to make peace between God and man. He accomplished that by dying the cruelest of deaths in our place and rising again three days later, redeeming sin’s hostages, and breaking the power of the inner darkness it …
A friend called one day, in a panic. Her babysitter couldn’t come. Was there any way I could watch her ten-week old foster baby for her—all day long? My mind raced. So many pressing things sat on that square of my calendar. I couldn’t imagine setting them aside for an …
