The Common and the Holy

I love the almost holy tranquility of this old photo. This morning while preparing my thoughts for a teaching on understanding the purpose and place of Sabbath rest as Gentiles tonight at Queen City Church in Cincinnati, I meditated on the differences between the common and holy things of life. Sabbath is the first thing…

Summer Garden

I can stand for hours in the midst of a summer garden—awash in silence— save a symphony of lilting birdsong, babbling brook, and the rustling of wind through weeping willows, the wild lilac, and dripping wisteria. I can wait there—longer than the darkness and sorrow of night—longer than the brassy banging of a mad world….

You Always Knew

Little, lively Vivie ran passed the colorful and showy hibiscus blossoms—some as as big as plates—and passed the endearing cabbage faces of old perfumed roses, to hold and behold a small, common garden offering. This wasn’t a flower famous for fragrance or beauty or anything, and still it’s slender stalk with purple velvet petals, captured…

Shades of Violet

When I was in the seventh grade, a new girl checked into our homeroom class named Darla Star. She shone like a beacon in a dark sky with her curly raven hair, beaming brown eyes, and confident smile. To this day, I think those magenta suede go-go boots, that she glamorously paraded, gave her a…

Dilemma of Joy

My treasured keepsakes bulge in pockets of time—rather moments—that are tucked hard against the bones of my heart. They remain as fresh and life-giving as the first-offerings of spring rosesbuds, tight with fragrance and bleeding of crimson that smears across my fingers as I pull them out one petal at a time. The edges are…

The next time you want to shake your fist at God…

It is essential in our walk with God to understand him as a consuming fire. Most consider our Creator and his acts toward humankind to center around judgment or discipline. That he is ever-watching from heaven to smash our plans or even our lives. But the consuming fire of the Holy One of Israel and…

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…

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 39,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj…

New Blog…

New Blog up… yep! not post, but blog… “blessings from zion.”