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
The sun rises every day and sets again. But when God dawns upon a soul, He turns His eyes into the darkness, and rests His gaze on the one and steps toward him purposefully, the glow of His glory pushing back the dark— slowly, steadily— as He prepares the way to the perfect moment. Then … Continue reading When God Dawns
Where has my faith flown? leaving me to the misery of godlessness when You are my own? And still You have shone like a mystery of lovingkindness that—can it be—I have never known? When were the seeds sown? Or have the vines of death, present from birth, slowly and deftly grown to choke and leave … Continue reading To Believe
For my friend, Frances, on her first birthday with Jesus Left alone with your memory— the fading image, the distant voice are not the wounds I thought they’d be for we are not so very far apart— Heaven has you, and I have Heaven in my heart.
I think we can all agree that 2020 hasn’t turned out to be the year we thought it would be. Who would have dreamed at the beginning of the year that so much would change? Even though I had heard of Covid-19 back in January, I never imagined how much it would affect our country. … Continue reading Coronavirus, Uncertainty, and Hope
The clench of pain, the darkness pressing; the future robbed, all longing wasted; the music quenched, the pleasure hollow; the loves in vain, the friendships fading; all losses sealed, the grief unbroken; all hope unknown, all roads unsteady; a failing breath, and death forever— if Jesus had not risen. .
All the hopes of wise men and of shepherds, all the dreams of captives in the night, all the longing of the generations— nailed upon a cross and crucified. All the years of watching and of praying, all the light of prophecies foretold, all the groaning of the earth, awaiting— wasted, poured out on the … Continue reading Song of Easter
Do you feel the shock of sorrow? The Foundation taken, the walls collapsing ‘round you. How deep does the shame go, burrowing far beneath the ground? I built in a bad place. The Rock you thought you found was sand, and now you know. But which of You is true? We often feel forsaken— waiting … Continue reading The Day before the Resurrection
Look up, all tribes of earth— Your King has come to save. Look up, oh ransacked souls, to the God who freely gave. Look up from broken trust to One with steadfast Word. Look up from tyranny to a kind and gracious Lord. Look up from dark despair to everlasting Light. Look up from stains … Continue reading Look and Live
Good people know their place and would never touch me, much less look me in the eye, probably for fear of contamination. They speak mostly of me—not to me— and then, of course, only from a holy distance. I am a sinner. In averting their eyes, they never see me— never see my awkward hands, … Continue reading Friend of Sinners
Gratefully His 