I love a walled garden and especially a vine that grows over the wall. There’s something so life-giving about living beauty and fruitfulness that goes beyond the limitation of borders. Think about the life of Joseph. Upon his father’s deathbed, Jacob prophesied this. “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose…
Generational Healing
Someone once told me that the best years of life happen after 50. Since I was in my early 40’s, I rejected the idea completely. It rang in my heart as unrealistic and Pollyanna-ish. Now that I am approaching my 71st birthday, I see the truth and beauty packed in that statement. There is a…
Open Every Door
We had a restful weekend with the kids at the lake house and now back in the city gearing up for a busy week and month. Mellow days make for loveliness amid the hustle of an ordinary week. I started to say a mundane week—but is anything ever really mundane—even trivial tasks repeated? The older…
Stop and Breath, It’s Sabbath!
John 30:22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. When I am pressed and overwhelmed in my daily life, there is one thing that brings immediate relief. It’s a very old remedy and technique, but is well proven to be effective. And that is to intentionally come to full…
Oak Trees and Anchors
Last weekend, our daughter, son-in-law, and both grandchildren visited our lake house for the first time. You can imagine how much preparation grandparents do anticipating the patter of little feet. Our goal is smiling faces and happy hearts. In buying this home of course we thought about respite—a place by still waters and green meadows…
Yom Kippur 5782
It was a bloody affair. For the High Priest, and the people waiting in the balance of heaven’s mercy, the Day of Atonement as prescribed in Leviticus 16 was a bloody affair. Each year on the tenth of Tishri, the priest first sacrificed one bull to cover his own sins. This prepared the way for…
Fall 2021
September morning breezes whisper the unrooting of summer’s green carpets and blossomed meadows in anticipation of the changeless mystery of autumn and the foretelling winter’s barren bone. While down below ancient earth produces again the necessary spools and spools of burnished color to unravel, with giddy delight, across the mountains, hills, and plains. The opened…
Guillotines and Teddybears
I endeavor to limit my news watching and concentrate on pumping up my faith with God’s Word, inspiring books, and worship. It has been key in navigating the storm that has descended upon us in 2020. But I inadvertently stumbled upon the picture above happening recently in Portland, not widely reported by network or cable…
Dying for Breath
My husband and I had been leading a tour of the biblical sites of Israel when we first learned that the pandemic had hopped from China to the Mid-East. A few COVID-19 cases had been reported in the ancient city of Jerusalem and surrounding villages. Even then the threat loomed distant—like it was someone else’s…
Winning the Oldest War
The longest-running war of all time is ironically not between countries or ethnic groups. There is one older and filled with more hatred, unresolved injustices, and animosity. Can you guess the two formidable opponents? As old as Adam and Eve, the battle between the sexes rages on into post-modern, post-God societies. It is clear that,…
