Bible at Home

A friend originally from Northern Ireland, had some family members visiting from there, and Jack and I invited them to a picnic in our back yard. I made “Shake and Bake” chicken and a marinated salad, rolls, and cake for dessert with ice cream. They were lovely people, and I enjoyed their accents as we…

The world famous soprano Beverly Sills once told this story about herself. One day she received a phone call from a close friend, relating that the friend’s father had died; and Beverly had promised years earlier to sing at his funeral. “I’m sorry, she answered her friend, I am booked a year in advance. I…

Just before we crossed Fifth Avenue in New York City, Jack was approached by a well dressed man who asked him where he had bought his hat. Jack was wearing a felt fedora (not a Stetson) which seemed quite ordinary to me and we were both surprised that in New York someone would ask about…

The same day that Jack hung a birdhouse on our patio, a pair of wrens took up residence. They have provided entertainment for us ever since. Our back yard is treacherous for small birds, as there are vigilant hawks who are also trying to raise and feed their own broods. The birdhouse is the best…

“Camp Meeting” was a time when Nana, my grandmother, went to the woods with other Christians, and slept in a tent and ate at a picnic table and listened to a preacher and sang hymns with spirit and gusto. I sometimes accompanied my father when he went to drive her home at the end of…

Miss Hysham, my Classics teacher in College, was full of enthusiasm for her subject. In the midst of a lecture she would stop and exclaim, “Isn’t this beautiful? Isn’t it simply beautiful? The language is lovely, and the images just glow in your mind! How beautiful!” Then she would continue the lecture. These outbursts occurred…

The use of clay to produce pottery is one of the oldest crafts of humankind. Shards of ancient pottery have been found on nearly every continent. The Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has displayed a large intact pot that is three thousand years old, and others have been found that are even older. I…

“I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3) These words, if ever heard or read, are almost always dismissed as “filler” for God’s message to Jeremiah to give to his people; but I believe that they express both God’s method and His motive in dealing with…

Short in stature, poor in income, but gigantic in spirit, St. John of the Cross lived and wrote in the sixteenth century some of the greatest spiritual books in the world. “The Dark Night of the Soul”, and “The Ascent Of Mount Carmel” are spiritual classics that in over four hundred years have never been…

Tender Mercy On the day my new-born granddaughter came home from the hospital, I was visiting, and happened to be holding the baby when the doorbell rang. Without even thinking, I went to the door and met a neighbor who was bringing a lemon pound cake in honor of the birth. I have never seen…