My mother-in-law died in January. Grada Johanna Voortman-Rietema blew out the candles on her 102nd birthday cake, rose from her chair, and fell awkwardly to

While my parents were still living, I often traveled from Holland to Grand Rapids and lunched with them at Porter Hills Retirement Village. On one

Once upon a Lenten season, I was preparing a meditation on Jesus’ cry of dereliction in the Gospel of Mark, the enigmatic: My God, my

I walked through the tunnel which burrowed through a sand dune and opened onto a deck with a view of the Lake Michigan shoreline, this

We reflect on the meaning of our lives not because we believe we are so important; we reflect on our lives to discover that we

When I was growing up, Easter moved me the least of all the holy days in the church year. I am not sure why this

Our lives consist of an innumerable succession of moments, and most of them seem to pass unremembered into oblivion. We cannot remember in the evening

I said, “Yes!” without really thinking about it. This group of young people had become my friends. We had worked together in the expansive greenhouses