Chaim Potok would call it “seeing between the blinks.” He says an artist does this. And God. I believe my nephew does, too. He sees what the rest of the world misses. It started with a strawberry. One day we were on the grass in our front yard and my nephew told me he hated…
I’ve been in planes and airports for two days. I arrive home all jet-lagged and weary. That’s when I see it. An empty flower bed, lining my house – empty, that is, except for the weeds. All I can do is whisper a sad prayer to Jesus. You see, I’d tried to plant seeds in…
The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” – Romans 8:15 He used to carry me. My father with the scratchy beard and the loud laugh, the kind that threw his head way back. He would carry me as he walked barefoot in Africa. I would…
There was the communion table. It was really just a stained leather trunk holding memorabilia from my childhood – mixed cassette tapes of Bon Jovi and Brian Adams, public speaking trophies, some melted candles and old photos. The day was white with snow. We draped our trunk with a lace cloth. It felt holy, somehow,…
Sometimes love finds you in a tuk tuk, searching for a computer repair shop. It had been two long weeks of ministry in Sri Lanka. I had traveled to Asia with my non-profit. Every day, after ministering to mothers, I would update my team and our partners back home. I would write blog posts and…
I go, every week, to this place on Main Street. I call it church, but others say it’s a mental health drop-in center. Every week I sit with my friends while they eat. Many of them pay for their food, but some cannot afford to, though the price is very low. They eat anyway, and…
Dear Son, Even as we drive across the midriff of Canada, prairie skin stubbled with dry grass and grain elevators, you and your brother are seated in the back playing Super Smash Bros. I see the smiles on your faces, hear the gentle ribbing and the laughter, and for this moment, I’m grateful for video…
It’s a simple room in Kolkata, with nothing but a twin bed and a wooden table. Beside the bed hangs a crown of thorns on the wall. Over the wooden table hangs a map of the world. It is reminiscent of the bowed-over frame of a woman whose prayers and love have changed the world…
I’m seated by a river called Snaring. Clouds pile like white laundry on the mountain faces that surround this Jasper vista. The river rushes by and one wonders how a river knows to rush or a waterfall to fall, and that neither ever stops. My friend and her family are here with us and she…
For the past few months, fires have ravaged my home province of Alberta. For weeks, all we could smell was smoke. For weeks, we wondered if we would be the next ones to evacuate our homes. And now, the rain is finally falling. Heavy, heavy rain, days of rain, washing away the fire, the smoke,…
Tonight was basement communion. It was a bowl full of broken bread and glasses full of blackberry wine. Everyone came hungry despite eating supper at home. And we sat, eight to the table, and we feasted. We feasted on laughter and spinach dip. On tears and green grapes. On liturgy and church and doctrine and…
Bruce Marchiano changed the way I saw God. The year he starred in The Gospel According to Matthew was the year I nearly died. I was 13 years old and blue with hypothermia. Nurses said I was a miracle. I’d been starving myself for four years, and was 60 pounds. I starved because I was…
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