Little hands on mighty hips, my seven-year-old face-offed with her teacher. The innocent question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” torched the classroom. It seems out of the entire class only my daughter thought the response, “I want to be a Mom,” worth defending. Like a ninja warrior. I’m afraid the […]
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There is a rock outside the church we attend. It’s a huge sort of how-in-the-world did that-big-thing-get-there boulder. It shoots out of the ground with no apparent means or logic. Whether it grew in place or if someone somehow planted it there no one knows. And every Sunday after church kids swarm to the […]
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Holidays come down with a splat for me once they are over. If I’d schedule a pity-party that is precisely when it would be. It’s symptomatic of intense preparation coupled with a lack of forward vision. And so, in the aftermath of cleaning up and eating leftover lamb, I find in my quiet house […]
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A big plastic red cup sits on the edge of the tub where he bathes. It keeps company with a yellow ducky, Noah’s ark, and a flapping tailed fish. The cup, once used for drinking water, now has graduated to one of those communal rites of childhood baths. Dipped and filled it streams a river […]
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“…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 ESV Fifty years is a long time. Half a century. It’s also just a breath, feather-light and temporary. My […]
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“It has no taste,” I told my husband last summer, disappointed the meat on my plate was not cooked right. But once the words came out, I recognized them as significant. My sense of taste and smell had vanished. This happened to a lot of people in the last couple of years. My grandkids on […]
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As a child I loved working with dot to dot pictures. I pondered them before I put pencil to paper, trying to form in my mind the whole picture, wanting to unravel the yet unknown. With a crayon tight in his fist, my grandson looked at me satisfied and proud. The dot to dot on […]
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“I no see it,” he says. His little spying eyes are squinted almost shut, focused on finding the far away airplane I point towards in the blue sky. “There,” I say to my three-year-old grandson. “See?” I assure him of what is up there that he can’t see. How often Jesus gently directs my gaze […]
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The talk was fierce. Fear rampant. He had orchestrated one murder, and was bent on more. Mobs and riots cheered the violence he inspired. It was unthinkable someone like that could ever change. Not only did no authority stop him, they permitted and encouraged him to do more of the same. He carried with him […]
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“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” -C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Compelled to cross boundaries, some like David with his slingshot ready to face a giant, and […]
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