Reading the newspaper the other day, I learned that my childhood friend, Nancy Drew, celebrates her 90th birthday later this year. Honestly, I didn’t know she was that old, still thinking of her as the plucky sixteen-year-old girl that I knew back in my younger days. Nor did I know there was such an age… Continue reading Learning to Read
Two or Three Tonsorial Thoughts
When I was a little boy, my mom shampooed my hair at the kitchen sink. Part cattle driver and part homeroom teacher, she’d line my brothers and sisters and me into a single file alongside the kitchen cabinet, much like customers at the post office during the holiday rush. Then, with a smooth, swift, and… Continue reading Two or Three Tonsorial Thoughts
Seek the Good
“For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples.” (Luke 2.30-31) Somewhere there is a story about a young boy who went on a camping trip with his dad to the Adirondacks Mountains in New York. For a good part of the excursion, they decided to hire… Continue reading Seek the Good
“And the Light Was Good”
“He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.” (Matthew 4.13) A favorite gospel song of small children, learned in Sunday school or in Bible camps or at home, is “This Little Light of Mine.” Written sometime in the 1920's, the simple stanzas, filled with… Continue reading “And the Light Was Good”
Not Complicated Stuff
“The reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” (John 1.31) Back in the day, when settlers moved to the Great Plains to start a new life, they were allowed by the Homestead Act of 1862 to claim 160 acres of land as their own, so long… Continue reading Not Complicated Stuff
A Promise
“And a voice came from the heavens, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3.17) Fifty years ago, the gifted writer Chaim Potok wrote a book called, “The Promise,” a story that revolves around several young Jewish people, each of whom must make a choice about the direction he… Continue reading A Promise
Blame the Magi
We should put the blame where it belongs. The three kings are the ones to blame for the commercialization of Christmas. While their intentions may have been good, the results are less than stellar, no pun intended. As the annual holiday approaches each year, sales starting earlier and earlier, with stores putting snowmen and stockings… Continue reading Blame the Magi
Smiley Face
She’s the happiest girl in the whole USA. Maybe not the girl Donna Fargo made famous in her 1972 hit song by the same title, but the carhop at the Sonic Drive-In that I see on Sunday afternoons. As I pull next to the digital menu at Sonic, push the red button on the intercom,… Continue reading Smiley Face
The Grand Reversal
"When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem." (Matthew 2.1) In the book he wrote, former President Jimmy Carter tells a story about his mother, Lillian Carter, more affectionately dubbed “Miss Lillian” by the press during his presidency. It was Inauguration… Continue reading The Grand Reversal
In Praise of the Unholy Family
"Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt." (Matthew 2.14) In my Grandma’s old and worn prayer book, the edges tattered and soiled from her fingers turning the pages, she inserted special prayers that she liked, the prayer book ending up being twice its original size, with holy… Continue reading In Praise of the Unholy Family
Sunday Brunch 