A love like no other

Sometimes there is a friend, early on, say, in high school, who writes in your yearbook. Pages and pages, continued here and then over there, with a message that defies time and space. Dispensing with the cursory, superficial gibberish, this friend heads straight for the truth with words so profound that, at 17 years old, you actually transcribe them so […]

Out of the Dust There is Life

When my girls were small, I had magical healing powers. I could kiss a scrape or bandage a cut and presto! It would be “all better.” They would smile and go back to playing. Today, these girls are young women, and I no longer have that power. They spend their days working hard in places […]

How Long Does it Take to Grow Up?

Mommy, when you are a hundred, will you be as tall as the clouds? This, my little daughter asks me from her seat on the swing in our backyard. Her sweet up-turned face looks past me to the billowing clouds overhead. To her, growing up means growing taller so she can reach the monkey bars […]

Is God Good All the Time?

“God is good …All the time!And all the time …God is Good!” Ah, the call and response of a faithful people. We like knowing how to respond. But do we believe it? Is God really good all the time? for the parent who’s just lost a child? for the man who’s just received a dire diagnosis? […]

The Trust Game

Have you ever played the trust game? Where someone demonstrates trust in his or her fellows by falling backward into the waiting arms of a team of people set to catch her or him? Blind fall. Big risk. No guarantee. Complete confidence. TRUST. Whom do you trust like that? I just played a new trust game. […]

Breath of Creation

A million lights twinkle above me in constellations I once knew. Bright lights from bodies trillions of miles away scatter the early morning darkness. I whirl in wonder at their glorious display. How, O Lord, can I fail to believe you are here? My feet, rooted in dust and dirt, are heavy in the sand […]

When Hide and Seek Becomes Here I am

Ready or not, here I come!” I always loved hearing those words because that’s when the fun really began. I knew all the best hiding places around our house. In the stairwell, behind the bushes, between the pine trees, by the swing set… What made them good was this: you could see the seeker, but […]

One Table, Many Chairs

Something special happens when we insist on one table with everyone around it. Oh, we may not like everyone there. We may not have seen them in years. We may not even recognize them. But, when the first rule of gathering is that everyone gets a seat at the table, the dynamic changes. It seems […]

Love Strong

If we love with heart, soul and mind, is that enough? What about strength? The Pharisees tested Jesus asking, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And […]