When I worked at a department store over my winter breaks in college, I was often assigned to the holiday goods department: a swath of shelves and floor displays of…
When many people picture the holidays, their family comes to mind, even if it’s accompanied by commentary about having to tolerate certain members’ irritating qualities. And then there is the…
“My soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46) Timing is everything, but often the truth of this adage is seen only in hindsight. While we’re in the moment, the purpose of…
I vividly remember a day shortly into my first pastoral call when I went home and told my husband I hadn’t had a chance to go to the bathroom for…
She was born full-term, 5 pounds. Her jaundiced head was too big, her eyes too wide, her appetite too small. Her mother knew something was wrong. After two weeks in…
Focal verse To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord (Luke 2:11). Reflection Tucked in a closet with all…
Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA, and leaders of the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have joined together to offer…
Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town, first performed in 1938, casts a young woman, Emily, who dies unexpectedly. From the grave’s other side, she asks permission from the narrator to…
If you’re a certain kind of person, the phrase “Turkish delight” automatically makes you think of a snowy day in a fictional wood—and a young boy willing to sell out…
Nine months have passed since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. We’ve grown weary of quarantines, closures and physical distancing. Some of us may be longing for the noises of life…
Calvary Lutheran Church, Concord, N.C. Weekend anchor and reporter, WSOC-TV (Charlotte, N.C.), and member of Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton’s advisory council My congregation has been a cornerstone for my family….
I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish (Jeremiah 31:25). I find out my father has cancer on Palm Sunday. My son and niece, both…
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