October feels ripe for walking.  So on Saturday, we walked in the park, away from hurry.  For a while, we left all else behind and moved straight to the heart of Grace, the evidence in things created. The leaves applauded our rest, dancing with the wind, dappling the sunlight that drifted through the trees, gold […]

The Cloud has lifted, and God is on the move.  He’s taking me somewhere new, and I’ve heard Him. Go. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” […]

My baby girl is all brand new, a butterfly free from a soul’s cocooning. She felt it, and we did too.  The acknowledgement of it glistened in her eyes as she looked at her dad, and then at me, water dripping from wet fingers. On Sunday morning, we’d been discussing Nehemiah chapter 8 over breakfast—why […]

It’s funny how one word can mean such different things. In the afternoons, Adam learns to clean the house, my hand gesturing to a trash can he’s to empty or resting over his own, showing him the right way to hold a can of Scrubbing Bubbles.  Right now, we focus on three jobs—emptying trash cans, […]

Sometimes at night, when darkness has settled outside, Zoe and I dream of glittering crowns.  “Glittering’ is almost too dull a word.  These crowns are other-worldy—piercing, as opposed to just shining; stunning in a way that we will feel instead of simply see.  These crowns would make human beings shield their dimmed eyes, still dulled as we […]

I need to be weeded daily by the Spirit of God, with a Word-shaped knife so sharp it divides my soul and spirit.  And this is why I cling to Him so passionately: I really hate weeds. Nearly every Tuesday, I make my fingers sore yanking them from the soil, digging into the dirt so […]

I’ve been disowned. The letter came while I vacationed on the coast.  It blew in cold and hard, and the words cut like a knife.  Others have walked away before, but this is my first rejection by association.  I’ve never actually been in conflict with this person, never shot them an angry look, never even […]

I see God everywhere on the coast.  I talk to Him, standing at the water’s edge watching, listening, feeling.  “You gather all this into jars (Psalm 33:7).  You alone rule over the surging sea (Psalm 89:9)… The seas have lifted up, LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding […]

Adam hates waiting. When he was in first grade, he often got to be the line leader for his class when they left the classroom.  But Adam didn’t like to wait, so when the teacher said, “Line up at the door,” he’d just open the door and leave.  Every reminder, “Adam,wait,” he met with frustration.  “Please, wait!!” […]

We’re sitting in a circle, you and I, with half a dozen other people we love.  It’s late at night, past the hour when everyone started yawning, past the time when we all ambled into the kitchen looking for snacks, all the way past pitch dark and silence to that hour when the world seems […]