December 5, 2016
I love collecting unique Christmas ornaments, especially international ones. This year I treated myself to the most unusual one yet. I bought a brass menorah. And I’m not Jewish. For many years now, I’ve wanted to find out more about Old Testament traditions. What better time to do that than this season, when Hanukkah and […]
Read More →December 21, 2015
One night, over 2,000 years ago, some shepherds near Bethlehem did what came natural for them. The evening began as any other ordinary night. They stood guard over their flocks in the fields. Even after God had called Israel’s greatest king ever out of the sheep folds, shepherds were still viewed as the bottom rung […]
Read More →December 15, 2015
People all over the world are afraid. We fear the unknown. There is a collective and palpable sense of dread. Terrorists can strike anyone, at any moment, in any country, in any venue. Added to that, you may have personal fears. Anxieties. Fear can give us ulcers. It can paralyze us. It can rob us […]
Read More →December 22, 2014
A quarter of a century ago, the tide of the Romanian Revolution turned, miraculously, and the people won their freedom. I’ll never forget the thrill of that Christmas season as I prepared to move to Eastern Europe. Hopelessness turned to hope. The impossible happened. Years of invisible faith lived out in the dark, for that […]
Read More →December 18, 2014
Christmas will come next week and we are bombarded with hopelessness. Will our world ever be a safe place? We feel collective anguish for the people of Sydney, Pakistan, and Ferguson. Maybe you, too, are facing the loneliness and despair of Christmas without a loved one present. Hope feels impossible. Elusive. Unattainable. And yet I’m reminded of […]
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