I was walking down the hall at church the other day and saw it.  A little girl – arms outstretched, hands open – was asking her Mom to pick her up.  I was still taking in the scene when God reminded me… Be like that.  Live open-handed.  Expect Me to show up.  That was the…

Do you ever giggle when you read the Bible?  I do.  Maybe it’s because I have an overactive sense of humor; maybe it’s because I find God’s comedic timing brilliant; either way, there are some things in the Bible that are just plain funny to me. One of those things, to be specific, comes straight…

Veteran’s Day is personal to me. My father is a Vietnam War veteran.  While I haven’t heard many of his stories I know that the circumstances he found himself in, the atrocities that he witnessed, and the lingering aftereffects can never be erased.  No matter how much time goes by. Today, he proudly wears his…

I grew up in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan where Christmases are always white and it’s not uncommon to be bundled up in hoodies and fleece blankets to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July. You might be able to imagine then what a shift it was when this northern gal moved to Georgia…

It was the season of hayrides, corn mazes, and Halloween.  I was roughly 7-years old when my parents, my younger brother, and I boarded an old yellow school bus that had been salvaged from the junk yard to give people rides to a small pumpkin farm. I was excited, young, and naïve.  I truly thought…

It’s one of the most popular children’s Bible stories – Jonah being swallowed by the big fish.  The tale of an Old Testament prophet who tried to outrun God and spent three days inside a fish (talk about a clear “time out” lesson) only to be spit out and given a second chance to obey…