“The hands of a king are the hands of a healer.” ~J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings In the beautiful ending to Tolkien’s epic tale of Middle Earth, the king, Aragorn, returned after a long exile to claim his throne and rule a broken people. His right to the kingship is clear,…
A friend described to me how she had prayed not to do something, knew God was telling her not to do it, even asked for the Holy Spirit to help her not to do it—and then did it anyway. As she shared her story, memories flooded my mind. Times when I told myself I would…
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and…
“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” someone in my hiking crew declared, as we took in the cliffs, pastures, and sheep. Just a bit further up the trail, we rounded a corner and enjoyed another beautiful vista. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” someone else exclaimed. The refrain became…
It started out as one of those mornings. I overslept because needing “five more minutes” turned into a blissful, perfect-way-to-start-the-day twenty-five minutes of sleep. It all went downhill from there. I had to take a quick shower, slap on some deodorant, throw on clothes that were not wrinkle-free, pull together a lunch no one would…
From the time they were little more than infants, both of my daughters adopted security blankets which went with them everywhere, from bed to the grocery store to Chick-fil-A. My oldest girl’s attempts to say “blankie” came out more like “blank-on-nee,” which eventually evolved into “Connie,” thereby ensuring that in our home, all blankets would…