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The Heart of Joy
Who is the most joyful person you know? What makes that person so joyful? Do they enjoy their job? Have a craft they love? Does their joy come from a relationship with God? What is the heart of joy for them? And what is the heart of joy for you? In the book of Matthew, tucked into the Christmas story, we find a beautiful description of the heart of joy. “And he (Herod) sent them (the magi) to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.’ After hearing the king,…
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Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem
For ten days in September, a group from our church visited the beautiful country of Israel. One month later, on October 7, 2023, the land that has such a special place in my heart was attacked. Shock and sadness washed over me at the news. I tried to imagine the panic of those huddled in safe rooms. I might have experienced the horror firsthand had the attack come a month earlier. Now, twenty-four days into the war, concern for friends we made during our stay there, and for Jewish people around the world, permeates my heart and prayers. War tears apart so many innocent lives on both sides. “Pray for…
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Go Forward
Has God ever opened a door and you hesitated to go forward? I certainly have. A few days ago, God used a backyard visitor to remind me of some important truths about moving ahead. I looked out my kitchen window and spotted it. A small eastern box turtle basked in the summer sun. I’d learned from my sister that turtles like cantaloupe, so I pulled out the leftover fruit from lunch. I cut several chunks into smaller pieces and hurried outside. The turtle studied me with a brown-eyed gaze. I inched closer and scattered the cantaloupe in front of her. (According to what I’ve read, most brown-eyed box turtles are…
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My Swedish Ivy
The kitchen windowsill holds several treasures I’ve collected over time. One, a birthday gift from my Aunt Ann, is a small white vase etched with a garden scene. Usually a pink camellia or a few pansies fill the vase, but today it’s home to my Swedish ivy. This isn’t just any Swedish ivy, by the way. The plant from which this cutting grew graces the mantle of the White House Oval Office. So how did someone without a green thumb acquire this distinguished ivy? My son, Corban, received a cutting from a work colleague, and Corban’s talented mother-in-law, who does have a green thumb, rooted the ivy and gave everyone…
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Treasures and Tea Kettles
Some of my favorite childhood memories are woven into family visits with my Grandmother and Granddad Stewart. I always felt special the second my sister and I burst through their den door. They’d hug us, exclaim how much we’d grown, and listen to my incessant chatter. A loud whistle would reverberate through the house, and Grandmother would hurry to the kitchen to move the tea kettle from the burner. She’d lift the tin cover from the cake plate and slice big pieces of chocolate cake. We’d sit in the immaculate kitchen with the starched white curtains, red countertops, and gleaming gray floors my Granddad polished the way someone from the…
Faith for the Adventure
