What unexpected warmth and sunshine on this last Saturday of a dreary month! January has hovered unusually over Middle Tennessee with snow and cold, oppressing my spirit with a relentless gloom.   As I sat by the bubbling creek at my favorite park watching the sun cast golden sparks over a cattail-filled marsh, a sense of relief settled over me—the tearing of a thick curtain, the rolling away of a heavy stone. It was as if nature were letting go of winter and preparing for spring, rejoicing as it did the morning Christ rose from death.   There is an appointed time for everything, Solomon...

As the sun settled below tonight’s horizon, I sat for a few minutes in the fresh, cold air on a screened-in porch overlooking a giant lake, absorbing its stillness, and its utter quiet.   Today is the 11-month anniversary of the day my mom left this earth. It’s hard to believe that much time has passed because the event of her death still feels recent and shocking.   But I can tell that time has passed, and that time—these past 11 months—have yielded new thoughts, feelings and experiences as I’ve traveled through grief with the Lord.   I’ve found that in my time of deepest and lonely...

Another year has passed, a year painful to remember yet impossible to forget. A year when last my mother breathed, when last I embraced her, heard her voice, saw her face. The last year any of those things would ever take place in my life.   The new year dawned with her birthday. She would have been 60. Every new year will make it impossible to forget, as if I could, as if I wanted to. I will never forget the life with which my own was so connected.   We don’t forget what we’ve gone through, the pastor said on Sunday. Remember God’s goodness and faithfulness, what He taught you in difficult...

Emmanuel.   It’s a beautiful word, if you truly know what it means. And I don’t just mean the interpretation, God with us.   Much can be said about God with us. The fact that God came to earth in human form and His name was called Jesus. The fact that His motivation for coming was love, love for you. Love for me. The fact that without His coming, all people of the world would perish eternally. Both you and me.   It’s all beautiful. And sometimes very hard to believe that it’s true. But it is. And that is, perhaps, the most amazing part about Emmanuel that I’m meditating on this...

As I took a walk on Thanksgiving morning before the family came over for a holiday breakfast, it suddenly occurred to me that we had no centerpiece for the table.     I couldn’t help but think about last Thanksgiving; Mom was with us. We cooked dinner together. Canadian geese bellowed outside; the stereo sang inside. The table was set and we had our choice of floral arrangements to use as the centerpiece. Several people had sent them to us, expressing their care as we prayed that Mom would be healed.   As I walked past dried weeds and berry-laden bushes, I thought that perhaps I could...