The Family Tree Before the Manger
Growing up we called it the “Mennonite game.” Within a short span of meeting someone new, we somehow managed to find a connecting relative within a massive tangle of roots. When one of ou...
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Christmas & Advent
60 articles gathered under this theme.
From Uprooting to Belonging: How the Birth of a Savior Changes Everything.
An angel appeared. A virgin conceived. Thousands of miles away a ruler declared a census. Like a drum roll of Sovereign timing and unstoppable happenings, the wheels of prophecy turned. W...
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A Christmas Search for Jesus
Every year for the last five years my three youngest grandchildren have come to our house in December for Starry Night. The idea birthed in 2020 when the “Christmas Star” appeared. It was...
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Open Hearts Find Room For Jesus
The slammed door echoed into the hallway and shocked the kitchen. Probably every teenager has managed a few. Ours did. And, although door slams were outlawed, the ugly secret was that I w...
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Of His Kingdom There Will Be No End
How many times have you said, “there’s just no end to this?” Paperwork, bills, middle of the night feedings, late at night work shifts, or maybe it’s simply the dirty pile of dishes in th...
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A Baby Brings Hope And A Future
Mornings have always been a process for me, like pulling me out of a deep well where my feet are sucked by muddy weights of dreams. Greeting each new day takes time and a dose of courage...
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What Is Your Heart Carrying Into the Holiday Season?
I love the Holidays. Always have. Hopefully always will. Yet, as seasons pass, new challenges arise and I find at times a sense of melancholy seeps into this time of year. I recognize how...
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Who Holds Your Heart?
One of our teenaged granddaughters spent a few days with us recently. She came loaded with gift cards she’d received from Christmas. We spent a day shopping and she had a day of bliss. Bu...
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Is Jesus the Prince of Peace?
“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Princ...
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Everlasting Father
“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Princ...
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Is Jesus Our Mighty God?
“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Princ...
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Who is My Wonderful Counselor?
“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Princ...
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This Isn’t What I Asked For!
This past Christmas might have confirmed what we knew all along. Many of the things we want most don’t come wrapped in beautiful packages. While holidays wind down and stores fill with re...
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Christmas Greetings to Your Home from Our Home
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7 KJV May your Christmas b...
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Our Fancy Aluminum Tree
I grew up with a silver aluminum tree. There will be those who respond to that fact with pity. There will be others for whom an indescribable nostalgia sweeps through from head to toe. Ou...
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Four Questions from the Christmas Story that Could Transform Your Christmas
Four different Biblical characters in the Christmas Story point to answers which might change the way you see Christmas. 1. “How can I be sure of this?” (Luke 1:18 ESV) Zechariah the prie...
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How Prepared Are You?
Black Friday, get-all-you-can-day, comes directly after be-Thankful-for-what-you-have-Day. Ironically paradoxical isn’t it? After feeding on bounty and gratefulness we rise from our fatte...
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Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog And Other Important Questions
“Would you rather be a bullfrog?” I ask my grandsons. My finger dramatically lands on the big green bullfrog leaping across the left side of the page. The book with the same title, by The...
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New Birth’s First Breath
In the sweat and grime of one contraction bursting upon another, I concentrated on a child yet unknown, but one already knit with my own heart. Birth in that moment was all about bringing...
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How To Bring Glory Into Your Christmas Celebration
I’ve had Christmases without snow, gifts scarce, and family missing, but I’ve never had one without Handel’s Messiah filling my airwaves. When I think of Christmas glory, it is always wit...
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My Christmas Gift Bought with a Child’s Heart
My son’s eyes sparkled like sun kissed waters when he pulled a bright red package from under the tree. His little hands reverently held the wrapped box, its smashed bow wobbled, as if rea...
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What Kind of World Did Jesus Enter?
“And it came to pass in those days” Luke 2:1, “that there went out a decree from Caesar Augstus that all the world should be taxed.” (KJV) What were “those days?” If your feet walked the...
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What if My Angel’s Wing is Clipped?
I found it in the bottom of a box marked kitchen in big bold Sharpie script. Moving and packing can throw the best laid organizational plans askew. Not enough space in a box mixes with to...
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How Far Would You Travel if Everything Aligned?
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw hi...
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I Never Thought of It Like That
It was the usual mayhem of opened plastic totes, lids tossed aside and Christmas decor spilling onto the floor. A just decorated tree and mantel already changed the entire look of the roo...
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A Timeless Christmas Priority
It’s crazy how much time it takes to make the season perfect. The ratio of hot chocolate and cookies to lights and greenery is only outdone by the numbers on my gift list. What should fil...
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Who is that Baby in the Manger?
Every year, of my childhood, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, Christmas pageant practice began. The characters were the same every year, the players different... ...In all the sweet...
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Looking for Immanuel in the Christmas that Almost Isn’t
When sparkling lights are only beeps and monitors on a hospital screen. When money is lean and gifts few. When a bucket sits next to a miserably fevered child. When uncertainty shrouds ho...
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Joseph Did You Know?
Rows of little feet too short to reach the floor, swung like swing sets on long wooden pews. Lined up by grades, and bookended by teachers, the oldest sat in the back, the littlest in the...
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Call Me Mara
“Call me Mara,” Naomi said. Tragedy chiseled her face and spilled from her lips. Pleasant, the meaning of her name no longer fit. Mara, suited her, for it meant “bitter.” “I went out full...
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1 Day to Christmas: JESUS
The richness of Handel's Messiah rolled over me in crescendoes. It filled my house with its heavenly music. Christmas isn’t Christmas without it. “Mom, we lost baby Jesus again!” my frust...
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2 Days to Christmas: YAHWEH
“Who is this King of glory?” David asks in Palm 24:10. “The LORD…” YAHWEH. The Existing One. Yahweh is the proper name of the one true God in the Old Testament. Without vowels in its orig...
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3 Days to Christmas: WAY
A dirt road led to the house I grew up in. I loved that road. Impassible in winter, a mud pit in spring, and like the dust bowl in summer. No other house sat on that road. It was the way...
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5 Days to Christmas: Unchangeable
My Christmas list looks like a paper war zone. I have crossed off, scribbled over and shifted names and gifts until there isn’t much space left to write, and no I am not done yet. I am no...
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6 Days to Christmas: Truth
There is a whole lot of happenings that go before the birth of a baby. My soon-to-be-born grandson’s nursery took shape with a coat of paint, a baby bed, changing table, and rocking chair...
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7 Days to Christmas: Son of the Highest Lk. 1:32
No one is higher. “He will be great, and will be called Son of the Highest” Luke 1:32; NKJV, the angel told Mary. He is as high as high gets. Son of the Highest is like the title God Most...
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8 Days to Christmas: RULER-Shepherd
“For out of you (Bethlehem) shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.” Matt. 2:6; NKJV. I love the idea of ruler-shepherd. It’s almost an oxymoron, two impossibles joined tog...
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9 Days to Christmas: PRINCE OF PEACE
“…and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6; KJV. When Isaiah penned those words, Israel was being decima...
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10 Days to Christmas: OMEGA
“I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End,” says the Lord. Jesus had a birthday. Just like us, from the day He drew His first breath, time moved toward His death. Alpha and...
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12 Days to Christmas: MAJESTY
So the bad dude king, Herod, called his chief priests and scribes together for a little pow-wow, a sneaky set-a-trap-for-the-baby kind of meeting. “Where is He who has been born King of t...
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13 Days to Christmas: LIGHT
Christmas lights are evil, my friend wrote on a facebook post. I know what she means. Tangled strands that don’t light are irritating. But the original Christmas lights were a different s...
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14 Days to Christmas: KING OF KINGS
“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” Matt. 2:2. “For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” Growing up, our family put up our tree the day after Tha...
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15 Days to Christmas: JESUS
Picking a baby’s name is a big deal. Seriously. Our third daughter was three days old before we agreed that Charity she would be for all eternity. Mary and Joseph didn’t have that dispute...
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16 Days to Christmas: IMMANUEL
One of my dearest friends lay in the cold Kansas soil. November winds blew the tree limbs outside the window where we sat. My husband and I listened as the grieving spouse talked, his sor...
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17 Days to Christmas: HOLY
Mary the maidservant of the Lord found herself in an unimaginable situation. A child grew within her, Son of the Highest, without human father and apart from the curse of sin. Fully human...
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18 Days to Christmas: GOOD SHEPHERD
I’ve often wondered why the good news came first to shepherds. They weren’t influential or powerful. They had a hard time keeping the Sabbath because sheep needed constant protection. She...
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19 Days to Christmas: FATHER
Baby Luca cries that heart wrenching pierce of a little soul in despair. It stabs my own as I jiggle him up and down against me, that continual parental dance. My grandson’s body melts in...
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20 Days to Christmas: ETERNAL
“and of his kingdom there will be no end…” the angel told Mary. Luke 1:32-33; ESV. “This takes forever,” my husband complained, scrutinizing his blank computer screen. Forever is a very l...
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21 Days to Christmas: Deliverer
Christmas commercials, jingles, and reindeer are pleasant interruptions to sour evening news. Current events shine stadium lights on our culture's rampant sin. World rulers add a sense of...
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22 Days to Christmas: Creator
One tiny fist stretches high above my newborn grandson's head. Like a miniature superman ready for take off he poses against the soft blue blanket where he lies. He uncurls his legs, elon...
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23 Days to Christmas: Bread of Life
Flour whitens the front of my shirt like snow. I brush at it fruitlessly with a hand sticky with wrinkled bits of dough like hanging chads. My counter space, with its strict no fly-zone i...
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24 Days to Christmas: Ancient of Days
God is always on time, yet I often wonder why He waits so long. I tilt the scissor's blade against the length of bright red ribbon. Curls slither through my fingers in tiny ringlets where...
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Fake News, True God
Herod the Great ruled Jerusalem and its surrounding villages with cruelty and deceit. His ruthless murders made him almost as famous as the magnificent building projects he instituted. Du...
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That Time
It may be that Christmases have sped up, maybe they really do come more often, or possibly it’s time warp of aging, but it is that time of the year again. I have a billion things to do, a...
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It came to pass in Second Grade
Once upon a time, long long ago, before people knew better than to celebrate Christmas in schools, when the principal could still haul a student to the office for a whopping, a second gra...
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The Sixth Stocking
Today is my son’s birthday. I wrote the following story over 20 years ago after he was born. It may be a little sappy, but is it a taste of the blessing he has been to us ever since the f...
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Hidden in God's Timeline
God’s timeline stretches, a banner of Sovereignty before time and ahead of time farther than any eye can see. Anna, advanced in years, a dot on the expanse of eternity, lived within the m...
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Expectations
I’m hacking into the New Year. Struck down on Christmas Day with a cold and fever, and pushing through the fog ever since. From my sick bed, I watch the New Year roll into New York City....
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Shepherd to shepherd
On November 26 our twelfth grandchild entered the world. It occurred, appropriately, just hours before Thanksgiving. Our son sent a picture of our brand new grandson cradled in his arms m...
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