Let's take a few moments and ponder all the myriad things that had to be prepared before a presumably exhausted Mary and harried Joseph stepped into the little town of Bethlehem on the very first Christmas. Roman edicts went out. Families filled available inns. Shepherds spent their lives with the daily ritual of keeping watch [...]
If you were to list some attributes of Jesus, your list might look a bit like mine: Holy. Righteous. Merciful. Compassionate. Omnipotent. Powerful. Creator. Faithful. Good. In a recent study of Matthew, though, I saw an attribute of Jesus that I had never contemplated before: Thankful. Thankful for God's Gracious Will After a time [...]
Uncharacteristic silence wafted from the car seat directly behind me as we drove. Constant words from my happy chatterbox slowed. Then she told me a story. Weeks before, she had been playing in the back yard with a little friend. Excitement led to boredom, then teasing. Where before they had been running around and between [...]
The beach is our happy place. It's only a three-hour drive from our house, and every time we go down I tell myself that it's been too long since we've been there. The kids run, run, and run some more. I set things up, hand out snacks, sit in a beach chair, and even read [...]
