by Rachel Bass-Guennewig The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” …Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said […]
by Sarah Rohde The day of my spiritual awakening was the day that I saw—and knew I saw—all things in God and God in all things. —Mechtild of Magdeburg We live in a world that sends us all sorts of messages about what it means to be happy. It usually involves adding something, buying something, […]
by Julia Seymour At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, […]
by Stacey Jutila When looking for wisdom about relationships in the Bible, you might turn to passages about Sarah and Abraham, the wedding at Cana, and Elizabeth and Zacharias. These texts speak of specific couples and God’s hope for them. But what if we also looked for a theology that could ground couples everyday? What […]
By Megan Jane Jones It really is true that we are surrounded by grief. In this already (God is here— the kingdom is come) and not yet (we are waiting for Christ’s return and the fullness of what is to come) world of ours, loss and sorrow are very real. On any given day, on […]
by Susan Schneider And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7) Growing up as a child of missionaries in the Philippines, Christmas trees were uncommon. We did not decorate a […]
by Joy McDonald Coltvet . . . kindness is like a garden of blessings and almsgiving endures forever. (Sirach 40:16) Somewhere along the way, I learned that when you invite guests to your home, you must clean until everything sparkles and serve more food than the guests could possibly eat. This can make the idea […]