I love the lights and the music, and children dressed in bathrobes and angel wings for their Christmas pageants. In our new neighborhood, just around the corner, busloads of people come to look at an entire street decked with lights and decorations. The backyard of one house is set up to resemble a walk through Bethlehem on the Read More
Prepare Him Room
Prepare Him Room Hi friends! This post is part of a blog hop for Advent. At the end of my post you’ll find links to some wonderful blogger friends who want to help you prepare Him room. Take some time to read them all. You will be encouraged. A Manger in the Middle of a Read More
Advent Begins Today
This is the kind of year I dream about. The very earliest date to begin the season of Advent is November 27th, and 2016 is a November 27th year. It won’t happen again until 2022, We have four whole weeks to anticipate the coming of Jesus. Four weeks to prepare and ponder the miracle of the manger. Read More
Uncle Bill
May I introduce you to my dear Uncle Bill? He is a painter, potter, and lover of God’s good story. He has gifted his corner of Cleveland and the life of our family with beautiful pieces of art and the faithful prayers of one who lives and walks with Jesus. We talk a few times a month, Read More
New Books are here!
I know, I know – it isn’t even Halloween yet, and I am thinking about Christmas. True confession — I think about Christmas a lot. Partly because I love everything about Christmas, and partly because writing and editing a book so that you can have it before the season is in full swing, means I get to think about Christmas Read More
Home for Christmas
For most of my adult life, I have have lived many states away from my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. More often than not, it has not been feasible to make the trek home for Christmas to an unpredictably snowy state, thousands of miles away from where we live, with five kids in tow. The last Read More
The Sound of His Name
Settling on the perfect baby name may take all nine months. We make lists. We think about how a name will fit within our families. We want it to sound right; we want it to mean something. For Mary and Joseph, naming the baby was a whole other story. Jesus. A name chosen by God Read More
Grace chases us…
….regardless of our worthiness. How lovely it is to celebrate a season that was shaped and formed by grace. From Week Two // Day Three: How is it going for you? Jesus came to Bethlehem to show us what it is like to see grace walking around in a body. He has bestowed grace on Read More
The Promise of Immanuel
Every year I see Christmas cards like this one that came in the mail today. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14 But the story behind this birth announcement is unsettling. What is it about the Read More
Connections
I have always loved the way things connect to make a whole. One of my favorite memories as a little girl was a time with my family, walking through the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan — staring for as long as the adults would let me, at the intricate doll houses representing various periods in American history. Read More