When Life Crushes Your Heart
While walking along the Atlantic Ocean, I spot an auburn-haired beauty bending, kneeling, spreading her hand on the sand. Is she simply imprinting her palm? Or is she holding the hand of God? Maybe she’s doing both. Because the God who can bind the chains of the Pleiades and loosen Orion’s belt (Job 38:31) knows […]
Finding Meaning & Hope in Life’s Burns
On a sunny spring morning with nearly no breeze, I stood in the still-dormant grass of the ditch just a half-mile up from our home. I watched that old, white farmhouse burn. Flames swirled orange out of every window and door. I felt the heat on my face from across the street. Our 25-year-old son […]
I Didn’t Want a Different Dream
My friend and fellow author, Jolene Philo, runs a helpful website dedicated to special needs kids and their caretakers. I’ve read all her books and have found her knowledge extremely helpful on my own journey in caring for special needs kids that led to my own special needs. After 21 years (this month) of caring […]
Silver Hair and Wisdom Hard-Won
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV I sit across from him at our favorite Italian restaurant, waiting for our pizza to come out of the wood-fired oven behind […]
Thoughts on Death and Life in a Cold and Frozen Forest
As part of the slide into slow this new year, I ran away. Actually, I drove away with my husband to Door County, the thumb of Wisconsin separating two bodies of water—Green Bay and Lake Michigan. We strapped on our cross-country skis and headed into the woods. Sun shining. Not a bit of breeze. Every […]
Abundance from Dependence
What do you do when your dreams aren’t coming true? What do you do when your heart breaks from the ache of wanting something so much and it looks like that one dream may never be yours? Like Hannah who wanted a child. Desperately. So what did Hannah do? Instead of lashing out at her […]
Foreign Affairs and What’s Right With the World
Terrorist attacks. My two sons and my husband are heading to London and Paris in two weeks for a WWII trip . . . I pray. I reflect . . . I put a poster board together for him Saturday, the day before he walked the aisle. The day before he took his seat among […]
The Worth of Work and Pain
I cleared fall’s dead from the winding perennial borders—the purple coneflower stems, the sedum stalks. I removed the invasive honeysuckle and hemlock planted by birds in places they don’t belong. I cut down clumps of Karl Foerster grass, making way for new growth. I dug up and divided overgrown hostas, giving some away to those […]
For the Joy Set Before Us
Joy to the world! The LORD has come! Let Earth receive her King! JOY? Fact is, some are sad right now. Like the loved ones of the twelve mowed down by ISIS in the Christmas market on Monday in Germany. While we’re singing peace on Earth, some are creating chaos and spreading terror and grief. […]
When The Sky Is Dark and the Rain Comes and You Wonder If You’ll Ever See the Sun Again
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-19 The thunder rolled. And […]
Massacres and Scepters
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and […]
Sudden Storm
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper. Psalm 107:28-29 The weather was near perfect all day Sunday. Sunny blue skies dappled with puffy white clouds. Early evening, we were enjoying an al fresco dinner on our […]