Tonight the sparkling, cold sky and cradle of a moon paint peace over the earth. It’s a beautiful reminder of the Creator’s nature. No matter what unrest, sadness, or burdens the people of earth carry, He always offers peace to those who cast their cares on Him in faith-filled trust. Tonight, my family continues to think of the day almost a year ago that ripped the stars from our skies and shattered our hearts. We’ve been talking both about that day and the present day: the reality of our sadness, the truth that healing is taking place. Our family’s landscape, and that of our...

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...

Faithful, ever. In changing times, unchanging.   In sorrowful times, revealing grace upon grace upon grace, lovingkindness that endures forever, changeless.   In lonely times, manifesting love, deep, great, unwavering, true.   In restless times, inviting rest providing hope for new things, making ways, directing steps ordering days, proving Your Word deep, great, faithful, true unwavering.   In needy times, in weakened times, a very present Help and helping a strong arm fortifying and strengthening.   In all times—Potentate— in time itself—Creator.   All this You are You...