I forgot to buy a box of Queen Anne’s cordial cherries this year. I didn’t realize it until the week before Christmas, and by then I was sure most stores were already sold out. I was sitting on the couch…
April FietDecember 27, 2020
For this Christmas Day 2020 I offer this meditation/sermon from Luke 1:26-38: Those of us who are parents, grandparents, uncles, or aunts all know what it is like to watch our children when they are in the spotlight. Maybe it's…
Scott HoezeeDecember 25, 2020
In his perhaps most Ron Weasley-ish moment, Ron responds to Hermione’s description of the many emotions Cho Chang is experiencing as she grieves Cedric and then starts to fall for Harry with this exclamation: “A person can’t feel all that…
Laura de JongDecember 24, 2020
“It doesn’t really feel like Christmas, Dad.” My daughter tugs sharply at my shirt to get my attention, and gestures dramatically down our street. She’s right. This Christmas is different. For her, it feels different because, after living the entirety…
Jared AyersDecember 23, 2020
If he was worth loving, he is worth grieving over. Grief is existential testimony to the worth of the one loved. That worth abides. So I own my grief. I do not try to put it behind me, to get…
Robert HubbardDecember 22, 2020
When Mark Charles visits schools, college campuses, and communities, he always begins by introducing himself. According to the matrilineal Diné culture, his four clans include his maternal grandmother, of Dutch heritage (translated as ‘the Wooden Shoe people’), his paternal grandmother…
Rebecca KoerselmanDecember 21, 2020
A green, glass dish of peanut brittle always sat on top of Grandma’s microwave at Christmas time. In those days, I never wandered into the kitchen in search of peanut brittle. Instead, I would stop in front of the dish…
April FietDecember 20, 2020
Well, you can tell Mom and Dad that “you” will indeed be present. And “you” will have lost a great deal of weight. And they are free to hug “you” all they want. Send ‘em a full-size cardboard cutout of…
Debra RienstraDecember 19, 2020
It's not a new story. I wrote it more than a decade ago, so it may well show its age. But I thought I'd try it, a father and daughter story, at Christmas. It's a bit longer than a normal…
James C. SchaapDecember 18, 2020
