I’ve always admired the way traditional Judaism celebrates the Sabbath starting on Friday night into the day of Saturday. If we’re looking for a time when we’re all ready to stop working – these are definitely the hours.
This past weekend, having a blizzard blow through my area all day Saturday…..
God has an on-going assignment list for each of us. This is apart from the generalized injunctions the Lord gives us about loving our neighbor as ourselves. Some of the to-do’s are probably even directed toward taking good care of ourselves: getting more rest or more exercise, eating better, maybe even taking more breaks!…..
Keeping in mind this new bigger set of clothes that God wants us to grow into with each passing year, let’s return to Genesis for the story of Jacob wrestling all night long with a stranger who turns out to be the Lord Himself (Genesis 32:22-32).
Remember that Jacob did not get “grandfathered” into…..
We end and begin our years with three “happy” holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. While it’s easy to connect Thanksgiving and Christmas to God, New Year’s often gets dismissed as a purely “human” thing. I beg to differ.
As we approach the New Year, we generally do two things:…..
I’m tired after Christmas. For those of us who take a primary role in orchestrating the holiday festivities, the Christmas aftermath arrives with a backorder of fatigue.
When I was younger, I often got sick by January – a clear sign that I wasn’t managing the workload as well as…..
When we were children
Christmas was a time of Magic.
We did not understand
Its theology,
Or the history of its traditions,
But we could feel
What Christmas was about,
For the season spoke to us
In the language we knew best:
Dancing lights dazzled our eyes,
Merry carols sang in our…..
An Imagining based on Luke 1:26-58; 2:1-5
When I was a little girl I remember so clearly my father talking about how much he wished the Lord would send His Messiah to us soon. Then, my mother would say how blessed would be the woman whose privilege it would…..
An Imagining based on Matthew 1:18-25
I admit I was angry when Mary went off to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth and never even told me she was going. It should have made more of an impression on me when she returned after three months full of miracle news. Elizabeth…..
Part of celebrating Christmas is observing Advent – a period of purposeful waiting.
I’m not talking about the frenzy that commercialized Christmas-making ushers in long before Thanksgiving. Rather, holiday preparations ought to be highly personal and particular, reflecting what makes Christmas meaningful to each of us.
I begin observing Advent by decorating my…..
Here we are at Thanksgiving and this year I have something new to be thankful for – you, my readers.
I always wanted to be a writer. While it felt like a big accomplishment to publish my book, Does It Really Say That in the Bible?, the commitment I made…..