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 …
As I read the Christmas story afresh this year, two questions reverberate within me. “How shall I know?” and “How can this be?” Zachariah, an elderly priest asked the first (Luke 1:18). Mary, a simple, teenaged girl, the second (Luke 1:34). Obviously Zachariah was a man of prayer for the angel assured him, “Your petition has …
Glory to God and Peace toward men. Isn’t it funny how we spend most of our lives trying to reverse the order? We glorify man and expect God to be at peace with our action. We garner glory for beauty, creativity, wisdom, and skill — all gifts given to us by heaven’s grace. We struggle between a lack of …
It was the story that brought her to life. My regular Sunday night teacher had the flu and Mother was substitute teaching at our small, rural church. Pansy Baptist Church sat between two cotton fields and always smelled of old hymnals and pot luck dinners. The plywood attendance board testified of ten present that night. I was the only child. …
