Close Up Living My son and his family gave me a neat picture. In large block letters across a white background is printed “GRANDKIDS”. Within each letter is a picture of one or more of our grandchildren. From across the room I can see the colourful word, GRANDKIDS. Up close, I see our grandchildren as…
How Do I Love Thee? Can I Count the Ways? It’s been a beautiful summer, a great time for outdoor weddings. Sunshine, flowers, lakes, and parks have surrounded me, as I stood with young couples anxious to pledge their love for one another. With determination, they repeated the precious words of commitment, confident that their…
It’s January. The new year has begun. As always, in this part of the world, we start the year with the snow and cold of winter. Our trees are bare. Our part of the world is reduced to black, white and grey. Yet it is also a time of hope. Sleeping in the ground and…
Why and How Make the Difference This morning I woke feeling good, ready do a little more. I thought, maybe today I can be like my friend Marilyn. She does so much. She volunteers for the school making muffins for the children’s breakfast, for the church on two committees, for the foodbank. She plays badminton,…
I don’t normally write “rants”. This time, I have no choice. If you have an opinion, please comment. What Has Happened? Last Sunday, I joined with many Canadians to watch the Super Bowl. It has been years since I saw a football game. We streamed the game through an app on a cell phone. That…
Over the last few weeks I have been thinking and writing about love. It’s easy to focus on loving some people. Usually they are friends, family members, even strangers that we read about who have done good things. This year for Valentine’s Day, please think about loving your enemies as well. That’s more difficult. We…
Which One Do I Choose? When we go into a bookstore that sells Bibles, the choice is disconcerting. The Holy Bible comes in many forms. Versions of the Bible written by scholars who have studied the ancient languages and done their best to translate the early documents into English. These scholars have tried not to…
This morning I read verses 9-21 of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in Eugene Peterson’s version of the Bible called “The Message”. The Message is my favorite version of the Bible because Mr. Peterson’s unfamiliar words and expressions make me stop and think. I’ve copied those few verses below. You can look them up…