It was an annual tradition back in my days at College Street Public School. Every Friday morning from mid-November until Christmas break, the whole school – grades one through eight – crammed into a makeshift auditorium. We had no gym back then, only two adjacent classrooms with a removable wall between them. Chairs and desks…
Medieval Christmas traditions would seem a little weird to most of us. In fact, the kind of Christmas that my ancestors likely observed in the fishing villages of Medieval North Holland probably looked a lot more like Halloween than Christmas. Take caroling, for example. We think of caroling as a joyful, cheer-sharing pastime meant to…
Wendy is the person in our church who takes care of the details. She is the one who sorts through the candles after the Christmas Eve service, taking out the ones that burned too low, cleaning the ones that are discolored from the smoke. Wendy irons the drapes we hang on the front wall. She…
The property we move to when the baby is 18 months old borders a grassy, city-owned alley. It is a secret garden, a lost green plot turned into a tiny community park. Eight properties back onto this narrow stretch of land. Neighbors take turns mowing the grass, half-heartedly tending the gardens, letting their dogs run…
During Advent and Christmas, we celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ into the world. The ancient creeds and the Reformation confessions tell us that Jesus is God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, whom the Father sent to live among us, to take upon himself our sins, to pay the price for them…
Christmas feels different when you’re grown up. I see this with my own children. Gone are the days when they would get excited over decorating the tree with pipe cleaner candy canes and angels created from dry pasta noodles. I fully relied on my older two to help share the cheer with Rachel and Janneke….
On Thanksgiving Monday, Peter Elgersma and his family rolled up their sleeves to cook for Richmond Hill Community Christian Reformed Church’s second “to-go” thanksgiving dinner. I chatted with Elgersma, a CC board member, about the dinner. Peter and his family, five in total, volunteered to cook and individually package 150 meals for the church’s 28th…
A young couple has bought the house next door and they’ve spent the end of the summer taking it apart. I feel as if there should be a banner flying somewhere over our street: everything must go! Curtain rods and carpets, sliding doors, mirrors and the bathtub, all the kitchen cabinets and the sink and…
“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (1 Cor. 15:13-14). I’ve often wondered why Easter celebrations are not nearly such a big deal in our culture (or even in…
My father had a green thumb. It seemed whatever he planted flourished – vegetables, fruits, flowers, shrubs and houseplants. He loved all things horticultural. Our dining room looked like a greenhouse. I recall tables full of various plants, a huge rubber tree in one corner, a thriving schefflera in another, and the wide sills of…
We’re all hungry. Some are hungry for literal food. We might be hungry for the social engagement of eating together. COVID has prompted hunger for many aspects of life. We hunger for communion – with people and with God. God promises a banquet. In my high school we had Junior/Senior Banquets, not proms. We could…
Feigang Fei has made a name for himself; he’s gone viral. Fei is a restaurant owner here in Montreal who has shot to fame for his honesty about the food served at his restaurant. The headline of a New York Times piece says it all: “A Rare Menu That Tells the Truth: The Pork? Greasy….
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