A swim story
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A swim story

Once upon a time I was feeling ambitious, so I made a plan to take both Rachel and Janneke swimming at our local community centre. I visited the pool ahead of time to learn of their regulations, as I’d be arriving with two medically fragile teens who use wheelchairs. I also hired a caregiver; together,…

Who picks the pictures?
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Who picks the pictures?

Last April, as Russia’s invasion into Ukraine was still fresh on the news and the reports of war crimes were leaking out, I received a folder of images from a news correspondent with the permission to print them in Christian Courier. The images were gut-wrenching, taken by civilians as ground-level evidence of Russian war crimes….

Raskolnikov and resurrection
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Raskolnikov and resurrection

Many years ago, when I was still a graduate student, I decided to read some of the major Russian novels of the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s taken me decades, but I finally got to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866). The story is set in the imperial capital of St. Petersburg. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov…

Nutty Idiots
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Nutty Idiots

A friend recently went on a book-buying spree as an act of protest. A couple of hours after setting out to a used bookstore, she appeared outside my office. Her arms were piled with children’s books by Roald Dahl. She invited me to pick out one that I might like – I went with Matilda. Here…

My virtual hearth
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My virtual hearth

There was no possibility of meeting in person that day. The pandemic had brought with it risks so new, and an uncertainty so deep, that gathering the lectio divina group in the same room was now out of the question. A few minutes before 8:30 a.m., I settled my infant daughter and her toddler brother with their…

Superheroes and Binoculars
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Superheroes and Binoculars

For one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are we not (all) merely human? (I Cor. 3:4) A couple of Sundays ago I asked the children assembled at the front of the church to name their favorite superheroes. There was quite a buzz of responses. Among the candidates were Spiderman,…

Saints and Superheroes
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Saints and Superheroes

The great cynic, Ambrose Bierce, defined saint this way: “SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.” If he meant that a saint was a dead sinner whose faults, evil deeds and misdemeanours have been simply papered over perhaps he was rightly cynical. I read his definition a little more positively; there is no one…

More than just surviving
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More than just surviving

Does anyone recall “Build Back Better”? It became a popular rallying cry midway through covid. After the first lockdown, we saw that collective action could develop vaccines faster than ever and provide support to keep poor households afloat. Covid exposed vulnerable spots, such as old age homes, but there was also optimism that we could…

Dual nature of the light
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Dual nature of the light

As we learn more about God’s creation, our commonsense understanding of things sometimes becomes limiting. Quantum physics, for example, is full of descriptions of the subatomic world that seem, on their surface, bizarre. Light can be described as either waves or particles. Good experiments produce evidence that supports both realities. And yet our commonsense view…

Pilgrim Days
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Pilgrim Days

When you read this, I will be within 100 km of the end of a pilgrimage for the second time. Together with my husband and three children, I’ll be spending this Easter walking the Camino de Santiago. For my children, it will be a first. My husband and I were pilgrims in 2005 before our…

Saints in the family
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Saints in the family

Angela, Editor of CC, wrote this as a companion piece to her editorial in March. Did you ever wonder if your mom really had eyes in the back of her head? If so, you’re not alone. Ripley’s Believe it or Not asked 1,000 kids between six and eight years old if they thought their parents…

A Father’s love
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A Father’s love

“Wait ‘til your father gets home!” How many times did my miscreant behaviour provoke those words from my mother’s lips? Make no mistake – Ma had a penchant for law and order and she was quite capable of meting out immediate discipline. But this was her trump card for especially exasperating infractions. Did she realize…