19 Days to Christmas: FATHER

Baby Luca cries that heart wrenching pierce of a little soul in despair. It stabs my own as I jiggle him up and down against me, that continual parental dance. My grandson’s body melts into mine but the out of control cries and deep gasps for air continue. “Here, let me try,” his daddy makes […]

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20 Days to Christmas: ETERNAL

“and of his kingdom there will be no end…” the angel told Mary. Luke 1:32-33; ESV. “This takes forever,” my husband complained, scrutinizing his blank computer screen. Forever is a very long time. “I waited an eternity,” I said after waiting five minutes in a long line of shoppers. With a sigh my daughter sat […]

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21 Days to Christmas: Deliverer

Christmas commercials, jingles, and reindeer are pleasant interruptions to sour evening news. Current events shine stadium lights on our culture’s rampant sin. World rulers add a sense of insecurity and fear. We long for deliverance. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been […]

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22 Days to Christmas: Creator

One tiny fist stretches high above my newborn grandson’s head. Like a miniature superman ready for take off he poses against the soft blue blanket where he lies. He uncurls his legs, elongating, stiffening, pushing. A yawn as big as a canyon, sweet as a kiss contorts his velvet cheeks. And for his parents, the […]

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23 Days to Christmas: Bread of Life

Flour whitens the front of my shirt like snow. I brush at it fruitlessly with a hand sticky with wrinkled bits of dough like hanging chads. My counter space, with its strict no fly-zone is littered with ingredients and pans. I brush my arm against my forehead and look at the mess. Am I in […]

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24 Days to Christmas: Ancient of Days

God is always on time, yet I often wonder why He waits so long. I tilt the scissor’s blade against the length of bright red ribbon. Curls slither through my fingers in tiny ringlets where they bunch against a shiny Christmas box making a colorful bow. Time, like strands of ribbon, moved through generations waiting […]

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Losing Thanksgiving

Proclamation 118—Thanksgiving Day, 1864 October 20, 1864 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to […]

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One of our Veterans is missing today

(My husband Phil writes about his father.) There were those who went before us to battle against a great evil in our world decades ago. There are fewer and fewer of those World War II veterans. Yesterday about 5:00 PM KC time one of those veterans went to “his eternal glory in Christ” (1 Peter […]

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Thanksgiving Despite Unhappy Circumstances

[republished from November 2014, also published at Metro Voice News KC  p.12] Thanksgiving tangled with unanswered prayers. I slumped against the antiseptic tiled hallway. My stalwart, “Hang on and hold it in,” gave way to unrestrained tears like prisoners let free. Crystal rivulets dropped to the floor at my feet. Each time I exited my daughter’s hospital […]

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The Truth About Grief

“Teach me,” my words stumbled out. “Teach me how to lose my daughter.” Surely this godly woman who’d lived through the horrific murder of her son could tell me how to keep from drowning in the waters of grief that suffocated me. Her eyes widened, startled, and she drew a sharp intake of breath. “I […]

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