A few years ago, I was driving around town doing the after-school shuffle. I dropped off my youngest at swim team and rushed to the middle school to pick up my middle son. One of his friends needed a ride, so I gladly ran him home. I planned to return library books and pick up a prescription before … [Read more...] about A Monumental Christmas
Advent
“Through the Inkeeper’s Eyes” with Guest Charles Martin
This December our guest is Charles Martin. Charles is the author of 13 novels, (several of which I have recommended in the past). When I saw he had applied his novelistic mastery to this tender moment in the Christmas story--on Earth and in Heaven--I was spellbound. This piece was first published … [Read more...] about “Through the Inkeeper’s Eyes” with Guest Charles Martin
How to Celebrate Advent…for all ages
If you’ve been around here very long you know I love the Advent season. Though I didn’t know much about it growing up, it’s been a life-giving practice in my adulthood. If “Advent” is new to you, it’s simply the four week period leading up to Christmas. Churches often have a special scripture … [Read more...] about How to Celebrate Advent…for all ages
On that First Christmas…
On that first Christmas, just moments after Jesus was born, it probably appeared to Joseph that the long-expected Messiah had arrived at an inappropriate place with no fanfare or announcement at all. Between the baby's delivery and the shepherd's disturbance, Joseph might have thought he was the … [Read more...] about On that First Christmas…
How to Read the Christmas Story as if for the First Time
Barbara Robinson’s classic novel, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, has been read and performed in classrooms, Sunday school rooms, homes, and community theaters. For 45 years readers have giggled, wondered, and maybe even cried with narrator Beth Bradley as she introduced us to the … [Read more...] about How to Read the Christmas Story as if for the First Time
Ordinary & Useful
For those of us who’ve heard the Christmas story a time or ten thousand, there is a tendency to slide right through Luke 2 this time of year without much thought. There it is again. “In those days a decree went out…” It hasn’t changed since last year -- or for the past two millennia for that … [Read more...] about Ordinary & Useful