Today, during a trip to the Wood River country where my family resided from the 1890’s through the 1950’s, with three of my cousins on the Schaufelberger side of my family, we stopped in front of the WW II Memorial that sits in front of the old City Hall in Bellevue, Idaho. There, cut in granite are the names of our three parents (or aunts and uncles depending on the relationship from which we viewed their names). Each had served in different theaters…
Author's Notes:This newsletter article was originally published in late July 2021 after returning from a trip to visit family in the Midwest. Reading it again in the current context makes me think about how much of my faith is rooted in what happens during the upcoming weeks of Lent and Holy Week. A friend of mine once traveled to Europe at the end of March. He told a story about the town they were visiting and how all the businesses and attractions were…
I lift my eyes to the hills, from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1) I recently had the chance to visit my hometown - Duluth, Minnesota. I only lived in Duluth until I was four, when we moved to Omaha, Nebraska. After Omaha, we moved to Schaumburg, Illinois, and after that, to Natick, Massachusetts. My childhood years were marked by these moves and experiences of different places. Duluth is rich in…
O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land,…
This week we heard the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, that moment on the mountain in which Peter, James, and John witness Jesus conferring with Elijah and Moses. I like to think of Moses and Elijah offering words of encouragement, words of hope and resilience to prepare Jesus for all that lies ahead. And I like to think of Jesus drawing strength from their counsel and wisdom, from the experience of those who had gone before him. As a memoirist, and as someone who…
“When (Jesus) looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, ‘I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.’”Luke 21:1-4A couple of Sundays ago, we had a wonderful Stewardship sermon from Pastor Gretchen. (When I was Catholic we always…
Fear not, earth! Be glad and celebrate! God has done great things. Joel 2:21I love this picture because of the cycle of life that it shows. There are the blackened trees that were burned in a forest fire. There is the vibrancy of the fall foliage that will soon be carpeting the ground below. In the midst of this death and near death, there is the life of the evergreen trees.When life seems really hard, as it does in these days, we can…
We are all missing special events in our lives, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, and funerals. They are still happening, but in very different ways. These are memory making events, ones that we may be able to re-create in our minds. These milestones create many stories, ones that we tell over and over again as we recall what happened and who was there and details and layers that stay with us long after the events have ended. We attended my cousin’s son’s wedding on…
How much time do we spend looking in the rearview mirror of our lives, convinced that the sunny days behind us were the best ever? When the world around us is dark and stormy we look back wistfully at how things ‘used to be’. Remember when church on Sunday morning was just the thing to do? Remember when the stores were closed on Sundays and life was simpler? Remember when we could just leave the house and go wherever we wanted and greet…
Copyright 2020 – All rights reserved
Design – Carlson-Creative.com
