This One Surprising Word
For one year, I have heard this one word: return. It is a word for the exile. For the younger son. For the wanderer. It means home. It means healing. It means a new beginning. “Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere … sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its...
Surprised By … Happiness
Are you visiting from Jennifer’s place today? You are welcome here. I’m an English PhD who traded the university classroom for an old farmhouse and a writing desk. I write about dreams and desire, I write about family and faith. I write to remember that life is magical. // Her smile is even more dazzling in person. Which means she stands...
These Farmhouse Bookshelves (Snowstorm Edition)
I love winter. I love snow. I love them for themselves, but, let’s be honest, I love that they give me more time for my books. Is your driveway buried in as much snow as mine? Here are a few books perfect for snowy days. Now, if only the library delivered … (You can find all my Saturday book recommendations here and some...
Christmas Day
*** “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14 ***...
Christmas Eve and Ordinary Joy
When I picture in my mind this turn from Advent to Christmas, it looks like a stream of water becoming larger and faster until it pours itself out into a big, beautiful sea. And, I do think it is like that. But, it is also like sitting next to a friend at the Christmas Eve church service. It is getting up and making the traditional Christmas...
Advent (Day 23): His Imprisonment, Our Freedom
I may have saved the best for last. I never speak in absolutes about favorite books or poems or writers, but I think Luci Shaw’s “Made Flesh” is my favorite poem for Advent. Of course, I’ve mentioned Luci Shaw a few times before. Advent may be pouring itself out into the glory of the Christmas season, but Shaw’s...