Month: December 2015

I received Christmas greetings from a friend today, and the e-mail subject line was "Marry Christmas". This struck me as funny: I don't really know anyone named Christmas, so who was I supposed to marry? I mentioned it to a friend, and she … Read more

In many churches, the traditional ways of worship have changed. The order of service is not as rigid as it used to be. Some ministers interact with the congregation, and some people even reply. There was a time when we did not laugh in … Read more

As the dogs and I watched the horizon, patiently waiting for the sun to rise sufficiently for us to go for our walk, I silently counted the days until December 21st, the shortest day of the year, signifying that on the morrow the darkness … Read more

We were in a strange place and had no plans to spend our first Christmas there. Eight years had passed since I graduated high school, but now I felt God's call into full-time ministry. Obeying it would require furthering my education. I … Read more

At Christmastime we read and hear poems, stories, and songs about reindeer. There are those eight tiny reindeer, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and the one that ran over Grandma. Once, Harold Kurtz, a missionary in the Presbyterian … Read more

Christmas is truly a time of great joy for Christians. In Bermuda, where I grew up, the poinsettia reflects the joy of Christmas. It grows into a tall tree covered with magnificent, red flowers, heralding the coming of Christmas. The … Read more

I can remember as if it were just yesterday the anticipation of the arrival of the Sears Wish Book. Growing up, we lived in the country, so trips into the larger city were few, especially in the winter. This, I believe, added to the … Read more

It was a sad Christmas. A special, long-time friend and companion had died suddenly, and a light had gone out of my life with her passing. No amount of positive and faith-based thinking lifted me from the doldrums. My energy had waned, … Read more

Ever since I was a youngster on the platform in our one-room, country school, along with about twelve children of varied ages and grades, I have enjoyed Christmas pageants. At the age of ten or eleven, I was the chosen angel Gabriel, and … Read more

I learned to text, only to discover that the cell phone fancied itself a prophet. This is called predictive texting. Whenever I punched in a letter, it finished the word for me. Thus, I sent messages full of words like "spzxq". The last … Read more