About five years ago, I had a miscarriage at eleven weeks of pregnancy. The whole ordeal was terrible. Even though I knew it was coming, I was totally unprepared for the actual experience. I was a complete mess. My husband took such good care of me and our kids during the actual miscarriage. Then, after…
“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’…
Thanksgiving will be here soon, and then everything will be all right. That was my mantra during the autumn of 2004. It began with Hurricane Charley, which sent us scurrying to a nearby elementary school for shelter. While we hunkered down in the cafeteria, Charley pulled a few shingles off our roof and caused other…
When tragedy devastates the landscape of our lives, where can we find hope? Recently, while traveling in Alaska, I rode past an area that had been ravaged by wildfire. The spruce trees that once dominated the landscape had been reduced to charred skeletons. But the sight that kept my camera clicking was the beautiful blanket…
When I was eighteen, the car I was a passenger in swerved to avoid rear-ending another vehicle. Two other vehicles—a car and a truck—hit us. Devastatingly, an elderly woman in the other car had a heart attack at the scene and died. In an attempt to comfort my friend, who had been driving and was…
“Now the woman was left without either her young men or her husband” (Ruth 1:5 MSG). Widowed and bereft of her sons, Naomi found herself walking a shocking new path. She lived the story none of us would sign up for. I’m not widowed, nor have I outlived any of my children. But I have…