Lent
-
moreMeeting Kin
On Tuesday, March 17 th, 2009Latest afternoon, earliest of evening, the last slipping light of winter threads in the shop window, and we wear it like a medal around our necks, gold glory. He’s greasing fittings on tractors, the Ford, the Case International, and I’m just there. We share space and light and time with no words. I watch his hands, thick and immense. He’s oil stained. A man becomes his wo...
-
moreWeekend Wanderings
On Saturday, March 14 th, 2009It’s been a long week when the dog gets sick, lays on the floor shaking and wretching and the kids all mention that, incidently, that is exactly how you looked twenty four hours before, and maybe you’ve given that thing that wrung you out to poor pooch, and if that’s the case, he looks real bad but maybe he won’t die either. When the hydro ~poof~ goes o...
-
moreEaster / Lent Family Activity: A Box of Repentances
On Tuesday, March 03 rd, 2009Our Box of Repentances, preparing our hearts for Easter… the product of a clever note from a reader in Wales, all abloom in daffodils, that wound its way to these Canadian fields, still in deep winter cold…. (Truly, this is a community of the most sagacious, talented, God-followers. That you would let me walk...
-
moreSupply
On Tuesday, March 25 th, 2008I know not what occupied me those long hours of the nailing; I only know that I was oblivious to the woods ringing with the pounding of the hammer across the hills last week. Spigots, they were, driven into the hearts of naked wood lined with the age of summers known, winters lived, exposed now in the chill of mid-March sun. Without a sound, the woods wept, n...
-
moreEmpty!
On Sunday, March 23 rd, 2008Seven Stanzas at Easter ~John Updike Make no mistake: if He rose at allit was as His body;if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the moleculesreknit, the amino acids rekindle,the Church will fall. It was not as the flowers,each soft Spring recurrent;it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddledeyes of the eleven apostles;it was as His flesh: ours...
-
moreEssence of Faith
On Thursday, March 20 th, 2008I half, fold, crease the winter stitches pressing patches down into blanket box darkness, then shake out Easter quilts bright as wind shakes panes and ruffles the feathers of a huddle of sparrows skittering atop ice crusted knoll heralding, with calendar page, the first day of Spring, the day for the changing of the quilts, the hanging of resurrection hope wh...
-
moreCome to Angel Party!
On Thursday, March 20 th, 2008As one who slips into the quiet of this place, we cordially invite you to join us at the celebration of the heavenly host. A lamb found! Note sent to the inbox: “I spent the better part of the afternoon copying and pasting your “Behold the Lamb” devotions to a Word Document. We’re a little behind, but I figured if we do one devotion pe...
-
moreEaster Devotional: Living on His Bread {Day 8}
On Wednesday, March 12 th, 2008A series preparing hearts for Easter… (Day Eight) We pause to listen to His Word, linger, lift up voice in prayer… then go live the Word. Listen to His Word (read): Luke 4:1-13 from the NLT Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for ...
-
moreEaster Devotional: Spirit Lighting {Day 7}
On Tuesday, March 11 th, 2008A series preparing hearts for Easter… (Day 7) Listen to His Word (read): Matthew 3:13-17 from NLT Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?” But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must...
-
moreBleating
On Friday, March 07 th, 2008You sit on countertop in sunlight reminding me in my darkness, though you say nothing, that there is always a ram in the thicket, if I listen. Photo: thrifted ram ($1) that sits before my sink
-
moreA Prayer for the Monday after Easter
On Monday, April 09 th, 2007The windmill in the picket fenced garden beside the house is motionless this morning. I stand at the corner kitchen window eating a warmed Empty Tomb bun, gazing out on a stilled world, a sole sparrow chirping in the maple, a lost flake of lace drifting down. It is the Monday after Resurrection Sunday: today is the beginning of living Easter. Today crucify me,...
-
moreArise!
On Sunday, April 08 th, 2007“The crowning evidence that Jesus was alive was not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled away stone, but a carried away church.”~Clarence Jordan “It is not enough to celebrate Easter and say “Christ is risen.” It is useless to proclaim this unless at the same time we can say that we have also risen, that we have received som...
