 There is a tree I love that stands next to the preschool where I teach, and though I rarely get a chance to look at it for long, I always enjoy a passing glance on my way into the chaos each morning or as I herd my group of three-year-olds up the hill to … Continue reading Deferred Hopes and Trees of Life
What but faith would make the golden leaf let go of life and whisper where she fell, it shall be well?
If my heart is a song the notes ramble far and long but like the roads that go to Rome every melody leads home to the exact same words again, again, again. .
I could pine with the evergreens, I could spread my empty arms like branches, aching for the snow to fall, to cover all my weary world in white. I could sway with grief in the warm winds. I could weep with the clouds in the rain— I love a winter far away. But You are … Continue reading Pining
At my table, I would have feasted on sugar. But You refine my taste with vegetables, not sweet on my tongue, but grown sweet to my soul as I gain strength.
Oh, Joy, You came to us in the night— a baby boy—made like us— oh, God of might, small in Mary’s arms, whom Herod could not kill.
That Christmas comes at the end, in the final breaths of a wasting year, is best. After the muscle-ache of trekking graveside and back, graveside and back; after the haunting loneliness— of beauty-gazing and solo-missions, of incomprehensible party chatter, of home without its people; after the long war— the blitzkrieg of unrelenting lies, and the … Continue reading In the End
feel the thrill of going fast! the spine-chill of a sudden blast— the wind, the wind, the wind! and countless train tracks crossed! But in the end something is lost of sunlight cast upon the hill the full beauty standing still where one goes slowly.
Some time ago, I was reading Psalm 29 and became enamored with the sheer magnitude of God’s power. With His voice alone, He “breaks the cedars,” “flashes forth flames of fire,” “shakes the wilderness,” “makes the deer give birth,” and “strips the forest bare.” And according to the Creation account in Genesis, God simply spoke, … Continue reading Thoughts on the Words of God
I walked with the stoics to the cliffs of death . I peered over the same ledge, down into the same ice black waters . and I tried so hard to breathe in the rush of freezing ache . kicking and squirming and trying not to make a sound . while they sat with their … Continue reading Observing Death with the Stoics
Gratefully His 