In the middle of Luke’s telling of the Nativity story, the angels say to the shepherds, “This will be a sign for you; you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” It’s a rare event in the Bible when God’s messengers make things so abundantly clear.
One of the tributes to former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who died last month, described how she became a champion for persons impacted by mental health. During her husband Jimmy’s campaign for governor of Georgia, she frequently heard from voters distressed about the conditions of family members living at a crowded psychiatric center in Milledgeville,
I love the mailbox. I loved the mailbox in my childhood home: a box with a door on both sides built into the thick wall next to the front door. The mail carrier slid everything in from the outside, and we opened it from the inside – turning a little latch to a
‘I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.’ – Ephesians 1:16
During these days when our thoughts turn to Thanksgiving, Ruthie and I are especially thankful for two people who were very formative in our journey. They were our Sunday School teachers when we were children, Helen Wall
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” Jesus said to the disciples at their last meal together. For most of us, peace has come to mean the absence of major wars, but in Hebrew, the word for peace is Shalom, meaning Fullness, Harmony, Wholeness.
One of my all-time favorite authors is Annie Dillard, and I am loving spending a few weeks this November discussing some of her essays in Teaching a Stone to Talk. One of the earliest offerings that I gleaned from reading her books was this relatively straightforward quotation, “We catch
In June, I learned of the death of a friend and mentor, the Rev. Nicolette Papanek. Nicolette taught me much about how to appreciate God and God’s creation. She was a quilter, both with fabrics and words. She had a gift for weaving disparate patches of cloth and ideas into a unified vision that brought
Many of you know that a few weeks ago Ardelle and I walked a leg of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. This is the third such trip we have taken with a group. Something I love about this strange pedestrian endeavor is the movement back and forth between solitude and
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is the title of the best book I have read in a very long time.
Written by James McBride, acclaimed author of The Color of Water, The Good Lord Bird, and Deacon King Kong (oh my gosh, what a deacon!), The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is a rollicking, smart,
I spent last Saturday at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, helping make a new bishop. I can say that I was actually helping because I was part of a group of people who surrounded my friend to officially present her at the start of the liturgy. Projecting (as