Solstice eve
"From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised." — Psalm 113:3 Saturday evening and the light is still here. It is almost eight-thirty and the sky is holding onto the day the way a child holds onto
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A letter to my father
"Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." — Isaiah 41:10 Dear Daddy, It is Father's Day this weekend and
What the boy said about his father
"Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you." — 1 Samuel 12:23 I was thinking this morning about something one of the boys in my class said back in the spring, before school let out for the summer.
The garden this morning (III)
"Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy." — Psalm 96:11-12 The garden has reached the part
Summer morning prayer
"But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." — Matthew 6:6 The mornings are getting longer and I have started getting up before I need
Before the children
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other." — Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 There was a time before the children when it was just the two of us and neither of us knew
Sunday Evening
The children over summer
"Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." — Mark 10:14 I walked past the fellowship hall this morning after church and the door was open and the room was empty and
The porch after dark
"God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." — Genesis 1:31 Saturday evening and I am on the back porch in the dark and the fireflies have come. They were not here last week. They are here tonight. They came the way everything
Numbering the days
"So teach us to number our days." — Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. I have been sitting with this verse the way you sit with a visitor who has come to stay and will not be
What my mother used to say
"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." — Proverbs 31:26 My mother used to say that you can tell what a woman is carrying by the way she hangs laundry. I did not understand this when I was young. I
The garden in mid-June
"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." — Genesis 8:22 The garden has entered the part of June where it needs me every day and I have accepted this. I was out there before
devotional
The morning after
"For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation." — Psalm 62:1 There are mornings after something that feel like the first page of a new week, and this is one. The anniversary was yesterday and it was what it was and this morning
devotional
Fifty-two years
"Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God." — Ruth 1:16 I cut roses this morning from the side of the house and put them in a jar on the kitchen table. They
Sunday Letter
Sunday Evening
devotional
Something a child said
"Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." — Matthew 18:3 Church was quieter this morning without the children downstairs. The Sunday school class is done until September, and the fellowship hall was empty when I walked past it, and the
devotional
The strawberries
"Give thanks in all circumstances." — 1 Thessalonians 5:18 I bought strawberries at the farm stand on the way back from town this morning. Two quarts, and they are sitting on the kitchen counter in their green cardboard boxes, and the kitchen smells like June. I am going
devotional
A time for every purpose
"To every thing there is a season." — Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. I have been thinking about this verse the way you think about a piece of furniture you have had so long you
devotional
The garden this morning (II)
"You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth." — Psalm 104:14 Two weeks ago the garden was all promise and no proof. This morning there is proof. The beans have come up properly, a
devotional
The porch after supper
"Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise." — Deuteronomy 6:6-7 I was on the back
devotional
Hannah's birthday
"It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." — 1 Corinthians 13:7 I called Hannah this morning to wish her a happy birthday. She is forty-one today, which is a number that does not seem possible and yet there it is. I
devotional
The summer mornings
"O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch." — Psalm 5:3 Something has shifted in the mornings and I cannot tell you exactly when it happened. A week ago the coffee was still a warm thing
Sunday Evening
"If you sit down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet." — Proverbs 3:24 It is Sunday evening and I am in the living room in the chair by the lamp, which is where I have been on Sunday evenings for
From the Sunday school class
"Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening." — 1 Samuel 3:10 The children were already thinking about summer before I got the lesson started this morning. This is the last Sunday before the break, and they knew it, and their bodies knew it before their minds did. They