“He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city” (Psalm 31:21) We are not always cognizant of the marvels of His lovingkindness. In a city besieged, we are apt to keep our eyes at ground-level, narrowly focused on the evil and the machinations of war. We see nothing of the glories, nothing […]
Two weeks ago my hands raced ahead of my thoughts, trying to prepare for vacation. The kids were going to camp and my husband and I, alone for the first time in seventeen years, had decided to take a trip. Plans were duly laid and tasks were soon assigned. Then came a rash of irritations […]
Communication is a frustrating bit of work—laborious and (at times) vexing. Each time I try, I find myself slogging through, encumbered by words and phrases that (at best) can only graze my meaning. After all, how can one encapsulate the infinite (Romans 11:33; Ecclesiastes 3:14, 8:17)? How can frailty face the weightiness of praise (Romans […]
Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace sat opposite one another there in the doctor’s office. Grace wore her wounds upon her face while Mrs. Turpin’s demeanor announced the complacent wholeness of her entire being. As the wife of a well-to-do hog farmer, Mrs. Turpin did not normally keep company with the sick and infirm, but her […]
"God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives."
The Valley of Vision Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, […]