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
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