Trina Holden 3 Minute Read When I was young, my mom used to take us to art shows. This may sound like a crazy idea to you — venturing out with five kids, age 12 and under, to a tent-city full of pottery, original paintings, fine glass and one-of-a-kind treasures. But she’d started when we were young — cultivating an appreciation for beauty and training us to keep our hands to ourselves — and we loved art show days.
Chantel 3 Minute Read Winter was never my favorite of the seasons, but my family and I eagerly looked forward to the days after Thanksgiving when we would fill our long evenings with baking banana bread and packing up little bags of cheer to share with our neighbors near and far at Christmas time.
The nights were often windy and the cold was good at finding any little crack to creep into, even if you dressed up like a snowman with parkas and mittens and scarves.
Elisabeth Adams 3 Minute Read Have you ever thought about the world Jesus was born into?
Of course, the set-up for His arrival began before the foundation of the world, but we can see precise pieces being set into place decades, and even centuries ahead of time…
Gretchen Louise 2 Minute Read I’m looking forward to getting home, my husband sighed as he stretched in the driver’s seat.
I couldn’t help but agree with a tired but happy, “Me, too.”
We’d just been to visit my family. Back to where I used to call home.
But I’d noticed it even more than usual this time…
Katie 6 Minute Read Blues. Why is loneliness associated with blue? Why not red and green — the colors of the Christmas season that strikes loneliness into the heart of the most contented of singles? It’s a season of gifts, when a lot singles would rather return their ‘gift of singleness’.
Caroline Rose Sanders 4 Minute Read Emma Christine couldn’t have known at that time that she would one day take a ship to Ellis Island to meet her fiancé in New York. She couldn’t have known that they would have many descendants and she couldn’t have known that I would be one of them. Yet here we are, well over a hundred years later, preparing to celebrate her homeland and the traditions she brought to ours.
Caroline Rose Sanders 4 Minute Read My mother was in her chair in the living room, laptop on her lap and stacks of books at her feet when she looked up at me with an expression of desperation.
“I’m too Protestant for this!” she cried.
This year, for the first time, my family is celebrating Advent..
Elisabeth Adams 2 Minute Read It’s Epiphany today: the feast of the three kings, the three sages, the three very wise men. They arrived late on the scene — some say two years — when Jesus was no longer described as a baby, but a young child; staying not in a stable, but a house. The point is: they showed…
Chantel 4 Minute Read I’ve always wondered what it might have been like to be alive that night in Bethlehem. I’ve wondered what it would have been like to be one of those shepherds on the hills… to have seen it. To have heard it. To have been there to welcomed Him. I read the words and imagine myself…
Laura 2 Minute Read As I snuggle under a fleecy snowflake blanket in my cozy chair, devotionals in my lap and a cup of tea in my hand, I watch the single candle flickering in the darkness. Three more will join it as the weeks go by.
It is the beginning of Advent.
Elisabeth Adams 3 Minute Read Once upon a time, my Christmases really were like Victorian greeting cards. Back when all ten of us lived in one house, when everyone bought presents for everyone else. (With a little help from our mom, if necessary). There were the secrets in the closet, the anticipation of seeing this person’s face when they saw…
Elisabeth Adams 3 Minute Read I think the Hobbits were on to something. Tea and scones, porridge and eggs, toast and sausages are well worth considering a second time, especially on a long and cold walk near Mordor when the first breakfast consists of rabbit. The Incarnation, the Atonement and the Second Coming are well worth considering a second time,…
The End.
The End.