I’ve been hearing birdsong a lot lately—I guess it must mean spring is coming. This morning when my sister and I were having our quiet times, some sweet little bird was trilling merrily outside our window. My sister said, “You know that verse in James that talks about how every good and perfect gift is […]
My dad gave the cue. The lights in the little theater went down. My mom opened the backstage door, and she and I sent fifteen kids and teens in blue shirts and cowboy hats filing out onstage. As the first notes of “Oklahoma!” rang out, I closed my eyes and pressed my fingertips together. Thank […]
When I was a little girl, I woke on Valentine’s Day mornings to a paper and doily heart by my bed with “Follow Me” printed on the back. I climbed out of bed to a room criss-crossed and webbed with string—one end of which was attached to the heart—and delightedly follow it around the house, […]
Lord— Forgive me for when… I get so focused on all that is going on around me—even good things, things you are doing—that I forget to focus on You, to take time to just be with You and listen to Your voice. And for when I get so focused on our needs, and then on […]
Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting lightThe hopes and fears of all the yearsAre met in thee tonight… Mary So much waiting, and now everything is happening too fast. Dusty sandals hurry past me as I huddle in the street corner. Joseph settled me here when I could walk no farther, while he […]
Sometimes Christmastime is hard. I know of a number of families for whom it may be hard this year—those dealing with tight funds, burglary, hurting relationships, cancer, grief. Christmas was hard for me a few years ago, when my family had moved from out of state into a rather difficult living situation in someone else’s […]
Of the Father’s love begottenEre the worlds began to be,He is Alpha and Omega,He the Source, the Ending He Mary Joseph came home tired tonight. He tries not to let me see, but I know it wears on him, the talk of Rome and taxes and blood and fear in the marketplace. And he has […]
O come, O come EmmanuelAnd ransom captive IsraelThat mourns in lonely exile hereUntil the Son of God appear… Micah, a young shepherd. Nights fall cold and early now. The sheep crowd near us as we huddle by the fire beneath our robes. When I lie on my back and look up at the Judean sky, […]
This Sunday evening, the gentle pings of my dad tuning his guitar sounded through the living room. My mom lifted a straw-based wreath circled with pine and red ribbons from its box and set the candles in place, four red and one white. We lit the Prophecy Candle, read from Isaiah, and sang of the […]
Well, it’s been a rather unusual Thanksgiving weekend, with my grandma seemingly having a small stroke Thursday morning and my parents spending much of the day with her at the hospital. But they all came home in time for Thanksgiving dinner, and my grandma even got up to dance in to Big Band music in […]
