A God of Surprises

Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever....

April 28, 2024 · 1100 words

Love Begets Love

I recently had the honor of baptizing my eight-year-old nephew. He is the greatest kid. He’s into baseball, soccer, Ironman, and the Lord of the Rings; he mostly gets along with his older sister; and he’s always up for a wrestling match. Matthew lives across the street, and on any given day I’ll see him kicking goals in his driveway, running around with his dog, Luna, or whooping through an NBA video game with his cousins....

March 31, 2024 · 1031 words

Polar Night

☊ Among all the natural wonders that our world has to offer, one that never fails to capture my imagination is the return of the sun above the Arctic Circle around this time of year. Just a couple weeks ago–January 23 to be exact–the sun peaked from behind the horizon for about an hour, the fist time it had done so since November 18. For the inhabitants of that frigid region on our globe, that’s 66 days without a sunrise....

February 4, 2024 · 957 words

Insist on Hope

☊ I was rummaging through my pile of National Geographic magazines the other day (if you’ve ever been a subscriber, chances are you have a pile too) and an issue jumped out at me. Its was a 2016 issue commemorating the centennial year of the National Park Service. Each issue published that year featured articles and photography focused on the preservation of America’s “treasured wild places.” The iconic image that comes to mind for me, and for most, I would imagine, when you think of one of these wild place , is Yosemite Valley in California....

January 28, 2024 · 1111 words

A Light in the Crawlspace

☊ As any homeowner out there knows, maintaining the foundation of your home ought to be a priority. Keeping an eye on what’s going on in your crawlspace can help you avoid some pretty expensive repairs. You want to make sure water isn’t pooling anywhere, and that termites or rodents haven’t moved in. The problem, of course, is that no one really wants to go into their crawlspace, and so you put it off until, well, you can’t put it off any longer....

January 7, 2024 · 1067 words