He sold black, ceramic owls. They were eighty dollars apiece and one could’ve fit in my palm (I didn’t try). His booth was tucked between a t-shirt souvenir shop and the street corner where a tan man in a fedora rasped out tunes on wood flutes. Dad and I stopped to have a look, and … Continue reading Eyes to See
When God made our father and mother out of dust and ribs, he filled their hearts with his perfect presence. It’s why there was no jealousy or idolatry or adultery in Eden. All of man’s cravings were aimed at God and quenched by God. Then Adam and Eve bit a hole into what was forbidden, … Continue reading Eden, Ecclesiastes, and Our Insatiable Appetite
April 19 I’ve spent February, March, and April getting to know C. S. Lewis through his works. From Surprised by Joy to The Magician’s Nephew to The Weight of Glory to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lewis has stirred something inside me. There’s a German word he used—sehnsucht—to describe his inconsolable ache for something … Continue reading Sehnsucht: My New Blog Playlist
April 5 Life is fleeting, I read in Ecclesiastes. Make us aware of our end, the Psalmist asks. We came from dust and to dust we’re returning, God says. And yet there are gifts under the sun. Like Sunday afternoons picking guitars on the patio, dangling bare feet off the dock, reading Narnia, visiting neighbors, … Continue reading Something New Under the Son
The Internet isn’t just bawling with dark news and death tolls these days. Look a little closer and you’ll find stories— hopeful ones. Old people still madly in love, communities using the web to unite, neighbors singing the Doxology from their porches at nine sharp each morning. And then there’s the story God’s spinning smack … Continue reading Story of stories
March 22 Today’s been strange. I didn’t go to church, didn’t talk to my friends or take notes or play on worship team. I didn’t leave my house. I’m tired of hearing about the coronavirus, but it isn’t something I can ignore. Or should. But that also doesn’t make it my focus. God is. And … Continue reading Two Reasons to Thank God Today
I brush my teeth at a window that overlooks our side yard, where we’ve got tarps stretched under the evergreen trees and anchored by cement blocks. Each morning looks like the last— drab skies and winter wind over the tarped ground, my elbows on the windowsill. It’s barely March and I’m achy under spring fever. … Continue reading Spring Fever and Our Longing for Something New
In C. S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian, Lucy Pevensie shakes awake her siblings to announce she’s seen the lion, Aslan. “I can’t see anything,” said Peter after he had stared his eyes sore. “Can you, Susan?” “No, of course I can’t,” snapped Susan. “Because there isn’t anything to see. She’s been dreaming.”[i] But Susan later admits … Continue reading A Pevensie, a Pharisee, and the Imagination to See Reality
Christmas is closing in and I’ve been thinking about Jesus’s grandfathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David. These were men with staffs in their hands and wool in their beards. Centuries before sheep and herdsmen welcomed Jesus into the world, shepherding personified Israel. Then came the age of kings and “shepherd” took on a new, royal … Continue reading The Shepherd of all Shepherds
October 13 Last night, I pulled on a jacket and walked out into the night. For the first time, October made me shiver. I stood and listened. Silence. Shadows. Cold. I turned and looked up the slope to my home. Yellow light poured from the windows and music floated from somewhere inside. Laughter. Light. Warmth. … Continue reading A Glimpse of Home
