In the very beginning of his Gospel, John writes: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life…
“A cry was heard in Ramah— weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.” (Matthew 2:18 NLT) This is not everyone’s favorite Christmas verse. We’re unlikely to read it during Advent worship on Sunday morning. Yet it’s there, in the text, solidly a part of Jesus’…
We often power through the holidays versus truly experiencing them. There is so much extra that goes on in December between parties, gifts, traditions, additional activities at church and kid activities. I have a particularly challenging combination on my hands. I love traditions, and I also like crafty things. I have to be really careful…
The morning after Thanksgiving, my husband asked me, “What’s the plan?” He meant, “What fifty-seven things are you going to try to cram into the day?” “There is no plan,” I said. I could see he was skeptical. “Really,” I insisted, “I have no plans. I’m going to sit here and read a book and…
“The only thing better than singing is more singing.” ~Ella Fitzgerald One summer in the local community theater, our family became temporary Iowans, performing The Music Man. In this musical, the chorus sings about an exciting vehicle called the Wells Fargo Wagon. The WFW was the Amazon of the nineteenth century, bringing such interesting things…
I come from a really big family. With my Mom as one of eight children and my Dad as one of five, every Christmas I knew as a child was filled with more people than I could usually see in one room. Now, years later, we don’t have quite as many people, but between myself…