Every year, of my childhood, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, Christmas pageant practice began. The characters were the same every year, the players different… …In all the sweetness of Christmas, its magic and traditions, it is far too easy to become trapped by the legend at the detriment of truth. Who is that baby in […]
Continue Reading
When sparkling lights are only beeps and monitors on a hospital screen. When money is lean and gifts few. When a bucket sits next to a miserably fevered child. When uncertainty shrouds hope ahead. When relationships shatter like broken ornaments. When grief pours like cold snow showers. When it’s the first empty nest year, the […]
Continue Reading
Rows of little feet too short to reach the floor, swung like swing sets on long wooden pews. Lined up by grades, and bookended by teachers, the oldest sat in the back, the littlest in the front. The rite of pageant belonged to each grade-schooler in our church. From first to eighth, we met in […]
Continue Reading