My grandson wanted to roast marshmallows over a campfire but we’ve been in a drought. My dad agreed to build the fire when we came to visit, and in God’s perfect timing, it rained the day before and the day of our visit. He added the wood to fuel the fire before we arrived. By …
Family Resemblance
Don’t I know you from somewhere? You look so familiar. We chat through locations we frequent, groups we belong to, and places we’ve lived. Nothing surfaces, but still I’m certain that this is not the first time we’ve crossed paths. Have you had this experience recently? I’d love to have a catalog of every introduction …
We’re All In This Together
Every three months, I package my son Jacob’s medications into two daily dose packs, ninety days, one hundred eighty doses, three tablets of one variety and two and a half of another. It’s a labor of love but at the same time it’s comforting for me as his mother. I’m sure I could pay someone …
Moves and Countermoves
Two has arrived in full force for my daughter and her husband. Their son has discovered his voice and along with it, his autonomy. My husband looked across the table in the restaurant, saying, “Please don’t stand up in your chair. I don’t want you to fall.” His reply? In his sternest voice, “Poppy, don’t …
Who Else?
I am a firm believer that we all have so much to be thankful for every single day. Part of recognizing this is the daily practice of coming into God’s presence with gratitude in our hearts. Once you start saying thank You to God, you may find that your prayers grow longer. If you’re unconvinced, …
Show Me
YouTube is proof positive that we live in a show me culture. If you’re unsure of how something works or how to fix it if it’s broken, a quick search will bring up half a dozen video how-to gurus. I needed to know how to prune my fig tree last year. I found nine different …
Foiled By Impatience
Midway through her pregnancy, my daughter developed a dairy intolerance. Since my cancer surgeries, I have been eating entirely dairy free and since she is my recipe substitution expert, she hasn’t had much of a struggle adapting, with one major exception. Pizza. On a recent visit, we headed to my favorite brick oven pizza restaurant, …
Answering the Enemy
What are your last wakeful thoughts before you fall asleep each evening, the thoughts that follow you into sleep, whether consciously or subconsciously, informing your dreams? Mine tend to be instant replays, like a slide show of conversations or events from the day. Sometimes I’m deliberate about transferring them into longer term storage because they’re …
Stones Into Bread
Yummy! Soup! My granddaughter, Amelia, loves to be outside. It doesn’t matter what we do, she just enjoys the outdoors. Recently when I was with her at her house, we decided to pick up rocks from the backyard in an area where the grass simply won’t grow. Little wonder as we unearthed chunks of asphalt …
Spit It Out
Dear Jesus, this day. Dear Jesus, GrannyBob’s birthday. Dear Jesus, baby puppies crying. No more crying. Dear Jesus… the list continues, interrupted by Dear Jesus again and again. If you’ve ever shared bedtime prayers with a child, you know their lists can grow long and often repeating. You want to guide them. You want to …
A Fitting Reply 