The day after my father died, I took my 86-year-old mother to buy groceries. The store was very crowded with people in a hurry. On our way to the checkout counter,...

Recently I had the opportunity to explore Yellowstone National Park with a small group of educators. One evening, as we walked single-file through dense woods, one of the guides signaled for...

Curious, four-year-old Sarah peeped around the open door of the vestry where some of us sat chatting, waiting for the pre-church prayer meeting to begin. Suddenly her face lit up with...

After my wife of 60 years died in October 2016, I began reading several books about how to handle grief. One story from a medical center indicated that shedding tears is...

Harvesting wild blackberries is not easy. They ripen in the heat of the summer in places with little shade. If you don’t go out when they are ripe, you won’t find...

When I stop to think about it, one of my favorite psalms can also feel a bit scary. In Psalm 139, David talks about how God sees everything and is everywhere....

During a difficult time in my life I received an insight contained in the reading above from Jeremiah: “‘I know the plans I have for you,’” declares the Lord, ‘plans to...

One day when my daughter Penelope was a toddler, we were hosting a family gathering. Penelope was playing with her cousins in a noisy room, crowded with relatives. Penelope is a...

My mom was the only child born to a 13-year-old single mother in the 1930s. She grew up poor and feeling unloved. My mom was an angry woman who didn’t appear...

Twenty years ago, I had my first real encounter with God. I was 10 years old and in my final year of elementary school. When I took the middle school entrance...