Yellowed pages fluttered to the ground as I opened the manila folder. Like the sugarplum fairies of dreams, memories danced into my mind when I recognized the font. A simple Christmas dialog written on a borrowed typewriter in the Texas hill country one December. As I bent to gather the pages into my hands, recollections of a nineteen-year-old-me arose with …
By: Melynda Schauer Has hope ever looked to you like a pregnant belly? Or felt like morning sickness? Or arrived as a screaming baby? I can’t stop thinking about Elizabeth and her role in the Christmas story. Her story and her son, John, are linked both relationally and chronologically from the beginning with Mary’s story and Jesus’. Elizabeth and her …
As I wound down the narrow road, I felt anticipation build. Every bend of the foliage and arc of the bridges increased my expectancy. When the shuttle bus rounded the last corner, I gasped as the 55-foot-tall Norway spruce and encircling evergreens illuminated the front lawn. Over a century ago, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted suggested this spectacular approach to …
My training union teacher had the flu, and Mama was substitute teaching at our small, rural church. Pansy Baptist Church sat between two cotton fields, smelling of old hymnals and potluck dinners, with an attendance board that testified ten present that evening. I was the only child. As Mother and I settled in the classroom, I asked her to tell me a …
Oh, My sweet child, Thank you for celebrating My Sent One. I delight in your joy this season. You are falling in line with a great cloud to rejoice more robustly than those who merely witnessed My Son’s birth. Joy is not a religious experience but being with Me in My Presence. Coming before Me is the way to abundant …
By: Magen Thetford Last December 26th, a day my husband and I usually love dearly, was spent in tears. I was exhausted. I had run myself into the ground trying to do everything, be everything, host everything and buy everything. I wanted the Christmas season to be full of magic and wonder, and joy for my family. Don’t get me …
I remember the age when a child could sit in the front seat, and do so without a belt or harness. The December of my first-grade was one such time. On this particular day, the presence of snow clouds threw a steel grey over the late afternoon, and I welcomed staying in the warm car while my mom joined other …
Sorting through forgotten letters and old photographs, I found this little story written by my mother in about 1963. Since she gave it the title “What Does Christmas Mean to You?”, I wonder if she had written it for a local newspaper or maybe to present to her ladies prayer group. Either way, you will want to grab a cup of hot …
By: Carrie Vipperman “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were …
By: Mark Persall “Be ye kind, 1,2,3, Ephesians 4,3,2.” At two years old, our daughter Hannah was learning to memorize scripture. In the meantime, she was also learning to count to ten. She was excited to learn and was making progress. She wasn’t great at making sense when she combined the two. It has been a few years since …
