For Sunday, March 27, 2016. Easter.

DON'T GET ME WRONG, I love autumn: the turning leaves, the cool, crisp air, the Pumpkin Spice Latte. But, I can’t imagine Easter in any other season but spring. Can you?

How can we fully appreciate life beyond the grave without the imagery and poetry of spring flowers and colors, trees budding, and longer days, newness breaking forth?

Do those in the Southern Hemisphere dye their eggs in deep reds, oranges, and golds? Does their Easter Bunny wear a sweater? Probably not. But happy Easter and happy autumn to all our brothers and sisters Down Under anyway.

Springtime with Nora

For Sunday, January 31, 2016

“We cannot comprehend what comprehends us.”
— Wendell Berry

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9. The Bible

Pops Prayer for today:
God, deliver me from trying to put words in your mouth; again.

For Sunday, December 27, 2015

TO EVERYTHING, TURN, TURN, TURN,
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap.
A time to kill, a time to heal.
A time to laugh, a time to weep.

            -- Turn! Turn! Turn! a song by The Byrds

There is a time for everything,
        and a season for every activity under heaven: 
a time to be born and a time to die,
        a time to plant and a time to uproot, 
a time to kill and a time to heal,
        a time to tear down and a time to build, 
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
        a time to mourn and a time to dance, 
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
        a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 
a time to search and a time to give up,
        a time to keep and a time to throw away, 
a time to tear and a time to mend,
        a time to be silent and a time to speak, 
a time to love and a time to hate,
        a time for war and a time for peace. 

    -- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For Sunday, December 20, 2015

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. ”

— G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”

— Lamentations 3:22-26

 — Lamentations 3:22-26.