My husband has a carpenter’s chalk line. He rolls it out, squints down its straight line and lifts it slightly between thick fingers, then lets it snap. It leaves a distinct chalk line marking what he needs cut, not cut, lined up or whatever. The mark itself will eventually fade or be covered up, but […]
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“…my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.” Ps. 73:2 (ESV) I feel like a lot of us are walking into a log across our path, or maybe on quick sand. The Psalmist Asaph writes like someone living today, with unrest and chaos, confusion and division. Everywhere we look there is something to […]
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“Uh, uh, uh,” I hear the warning in three short grunts. I turn quickly to find out what my not-quite-two-year-old grandson is doing. My quickness is due first to fear for his safety and secondly for the life of whatever he might be holding in those chubby little fingers. But touching what a baby should […]
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Another year has passed. No wait a minute, I hear you say, not just any year. 2020 is behind us. But like a nightmare that drags its headache into the day, we feel its shadow as 2021 begins…It is good to be at a place where we cannot. It is there we find God can. Read the full […]
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Dad always wanted lots of light for reading in our old farmhouse. There were never enough and they were never bright enough. I remember well his hand, freckled with age spots as he settled into his old blue recliner. He reached up to the floor lamp and turned the little black switch. It flooded brightness […]
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It happens every year. It’s like trying to finish off the Christmas cookies, fudge and eggnog so I can start dieting in January. It’s such a burden. But perhaps none quite so marked as this New Year with its old past. How does one celebrate beginnings while dragging weights that aren’t yet ended? Can a […]
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I found it in the bottom of a box marked kitchen in big bold Sharpie script. Moving and packing can throw the best laid organizational plans askew. Not enough space in a box mixes with too much space and they birth miscellaneous. That might have been a deep analogy of life, but this blog isn’t […]
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“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’” Matthew 2:1-2 (NIV) During the month of December I usually go on […]
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It was the usual mayhem of opened plastic totes, lids tossed aside and Christmas decor spilling onto the floor. A just decorated tree and mantel already changed the entire look of the room. Awash with color and lights, every inch announced the arrival of the season. Three little boys added intensity with high pitched squeals, […]
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A year ago, before the shadow of Covid darkened our skies, my daughter wrote a guest post. As we look for the light at the end of the 2020 tunnel, it relates to our lives now even more. The most powerful lessons of thanksgiving often come from the least likely of dark places. My life […]
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