Gaining a heart of wisdom
What if every little person could grow up knowing that she is lovely because God loves her? What if everything in the sky and under the sky were suddenly revealed as mirrors, reflecting God's huge "I LOVE YOU." What if the Bible could be understood NOT as a book of rules or as a dusty collection… Continue reading Every Story Whispers His Name
My sixteen-year old and I are laboring over chemistry together these days, and his textbook has decreed that we are not to move on to Chapter 5 until he is confident in balancing equations. We're not going anywhere right away, so . . . We have spent this week with a printed worksheet of fifty chemical equations,… Continue reading Hard-wired for Awe
Pastor and author Kyle Idleman did an informal survey via social media with just one question. "Finish this sentence: Jesus became real when . . ." The hundreds of responses he received, some general ("I had no one else to turn to.") and some specific ("My husband was killed in a car accident."), could be… Continue reading Filling Empty Things
For many, the Christmas story stands alone, lifted with huge parentheses out of the New Testament -- maybe delivered in Linus's hushed boy soprano, and then tucked away with the durable resin nativity set and the white twinkly lights until next year. It's a great story, so it's easy to see why authors of every creed… Continue reading Words About THE WORD: Recommended Reads for Christmas
Out loud and together. That's how my patient husband and I are reading through the Bible this year, and, believe it or not, we're just about on schedule! Right now we are taking in the book of Acts in great gulps, two or three chapters at a time interspersed with the corresponding epistles. That breathless pace… Continue reading To the End of the Earth
When we think of God, and angels, and The Angel, we suppose ineffable light. So there is surprise in the air when we see him bring to Mary, in her lit room, a gift of darkness. From "The Overshadow" Accompanied by Angels According to Luke 1:35, the mystery of the incarnation happened in shade, and… Continue reading Made Flesh
A nursing home can be a pretty grim place on a holiday, but a one-year-old with smiley eyes who is practicing his walking in the hallways is certainly a game changer. The hard journey of my mother's transition to a care facility has never been harder than this first big holiday without her in our… Continue reading Make It Sparkle!
Proverbs has always been a challenging read for me. My brain wants to make outlines, and it searches in vain for a tidy way to summarize the truth of a chapter. Proverbs 1 and 2 cooperate nicely: wisdom. However, the following chapters veer off into multiple topics, and my takeaway from reading this valuable wisdom literature is that… Continue reading The Beginning of Wisdom
Anyone who has grown up in mainstream North American culture has inherited a freight of mythology -- some of it fun like Babe the Blue Ox and his exploits with Paul Bunyan. Some of it is misleading but harmless like George Washington and the cherry tree. However, some of our myths have grown up alongside… Continue reading Out of Myth and into Truth
Five and a half years ago our family piled into a mini-van and drove cross country -- Maine to Seattle, south to Arizona, and then in a zig-zagging joy ride back to Maine. Four boys, two parents, one tent, six sleeping bags, and five weeks of freedom on the road. It becomes a better memory… Continue reading Grant Us Grace to Ask
Living Our Days 