Her story fans the flames of hope. It’s a story of recognition that against all odds, God is on the move and priorities must be reordered. It takes place many generations after Abraham. Two Hebrew spies, sent by Joshua to scout out the promised land, secretly enter the walled city of Jericho. They hide out … Continue reading Hope on a Rope: Keeping Vigil with Rahab
He was Simon’s younger brother. He had introduced his tough, zealous brother to Jesus, and Jesus had renamed Simon Peter, Rock. But Andrew, Peter’s younger brother, wasn’t a big name among the disciples. He didn't go up the mountain with Peter, James and John. He was Christ’s humble friend. His heart was pure enough listen … Continue reading A Younger Brother, a Boy’s Lunch and Bread for the Life of the World
He was so old “his body was as good as dead.” Ages ago, or so it seemed to him and his menopausal wife, he’d left the land of the Chaldeans and led servants and livestock on a journey to a land God had promised to show him. “I will bless you,” God revealed to his … Continue reading The Old Man Whose Belief Became a Blessing for us All
Each dark December we center the old Advent wreath on the dining room table, pressing fresh candles into their holders and sprucing the base with evergreen. It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, we’re reminded. Our hearts are heavy but their burden is light. The wreath’s first candle, all violet … Continue reading The Advent Wreath: A Crescendo of Hope
I once saw a kitschy Christmas card featuring a photograph of a straw-filled manger. The caption read “King-sized Bed.” Despite its triteness, that caption stayed with me. The thought of God’s choice, binding himself to humanity by becoming one of us and in lowly circumstances whose fanfare was known only to shepherds and star-studying Magi … Continue reading The Call of the Small: An Advent Invitation
Snow is late this year, but winter's chill is in the air in my Colorado mountain valley. Time for a fire and a return to Narnia, Middle Earth, or maybe Sigrid Undset's Norway. Winter months are long here, but they are less so with the help of wintry tales. By the time the Fellowship of … Continue reading This Icelandic Children’s Tale Melts the Heart and Speaks Truth to Our Times
Sarah Clarkson, in her incredibleThis Beautiful Truth: How God’s Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness, describes her Holy Saturday during the Covid 19 lockdown of 2020. She’d been out for a walk on the downs near her English home, where in the first phase of the pandemic she was allowed only one walk a day. “The … Continue reading Halloween, Holy Time and our Longing for “Days that Are Different”
“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark wilderness, for I had wandered from the straight and true." These, the opening lines of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy (Anthony Esolen translation) speak to the inner journey of the soul. They confront us with the voice of a man who knows … Continue reading Dante’s Divine Comedy: Links to Lead You through History’s Greatest Poem
Through the window by my desk I can see that our backyard garden is crashing. Vibrant summer greens are now tinged with yellow and brown. Hollyhocks bend toward the ground in graceful curves; tired sunflower heads droop. Yet shafts of early-autumn sunlight illumine beauty in the bean stands and potato vines. Work remains to be … Continue reading “If I Could Tell You” – W. H. Auden’s Hopeful Whisper in the Dark
T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock speaks heavily into our contemporary souls of "time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet." Who are we, really, aside from our curated Instagram personas, our virtue signals and our self-justifications? What is the truth we hide even from ourselves? In Till … Continue reading C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces and the Slow Liberation of Our True Selves
