During our stay in Scotland at the Blairmore House in Huntly, owned and operated by Ellel Ministries as a healing and restoration place for senior Christian leaders, I relished waking up each morning in the beautifully restored and refurbished castle in the highlands. Gray clouds and drizzling rain overtook the skies almost daily, still my…
Category: Faith
For Freedom
As sure as first light, the silvery mist rises from Scotland’s moors and mountains and lingers all the day, past midnight blue. It is a perfumed haze, a glimpse of the Son of Man himself, Jesus, Warrior and King—who walks in thin air across the land. His footprints drip in the mist with fragrance as…
Yes
Yes, I’ll journey with you to Skull Hill in springtime, the hyacinths dripping of perfume and the lily blazing purity in the flooding sunshine of noonday. I’m frail and naked and ashamed— beaten and exposed to my bone’s marrow, but I will go with you. I’ll fall upon you in the river of crimson that…
Wintering Winter
The Tree in Winter The winter, barren branch, firmly rooted, standing stark against a scarlet-stained sky has long been one of my favorite metaphors for life. I have spent close to 50 winters contemplating its beauty and message. In every testing period of my life, its sermon of hope becomes my winter song of making…
Gleam
Millions of pinholes twinkle across a midnight sky, a bubbly mountain river shimmers in sunlight as it flows to the sea, sand glistens through the water at the ocean shore, bright eyes gleam from a distant playground, and a smoldering ember glows red hot to the end. A small thing it is not…to shine, to…
Proclamation
The black earth that swallowed the acorn, and the seed that died and split open. The tender sapling that shivered to rise, and the tree that towered above the house to touch the clouds. The roots that bore deep below the sand and rock, and the verdant leaves that waved with the wind. The veins…
Life and Light
Writers, especially poets, often endeavor to incorporate the magic of falling or slanting light into their musings—the way it reflects off the water, shines through the trees, or forms shadows on the wall. They are occasionally criticized for their feeble attempts—metaphors too worn out with over-usage and too prosaic. How do you capture and bend…
Crimson Ribbon of Joy Part 1
“Joy is the serious business of heaven.” CS Lewis Part 1 Under the Yew Tree The autumn air grew chilly as the sun dipped below the horizon. It was that time of day—just past sunset— that falls heavy in the air and everything on land, sea, and sky grows distant and melds into steely gray…
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…
Bonnie Saul Wilks 