When my brothers and I get together and recollect our childhood, we recognize our memories are extremely idyllic! We have great memories and feels of our growing up years. One of those idyllic memories is of my grandparents’ house. Oh, it wasn’t a beach house or lake house, not a cabin in the mountains… it was a small, plain house…
Category: Devotional
High Point Forgiveness
High Point is a village situated in north central Pennsylvania. A lake with crystal clear, cold water is fed by springs in the surrounding mountains. The city of Lebanon eight miles south bought the lake and thousands of watershed acreage. High fences protect it from development or recreational use. The water is piped to replace the city’s preponderance of wells…
The Hands I Love
The hands that I love are many. My Mom’s hands scratched my back when I was a little girl. They sleepily rubbed my knees in the middle of nights I would wake up crying with growing pains. They lovingly washed my hair in the kitchen sink on Friday nights. My Dad’s hands were big and strong. He could cover both…
Loving a ‘Little Cockroach’
I love Bean. She was one of Rose’s puppies. Three went to friends at work and we kept one. We kept Bean. I love that dog. A cross between a Jack Russell terrier and an unknown, random Chihuahua, Bean has crazy, wiry hair. She is not the best looking dog by any stretch of the imagination. Yet to us, she…
The End is Near
I was a naïve 16-year-old in Philadelphia. Fels Planetarium advertised a star show on the end of the world. Since I was raised in a Christian home and learned about end times, I decided to attend. The lecturer turned on the star projector. He showed how the earth is getting closer to the sun. Temperatures, he claimed, would escalate until…
Granny’s Good Medicine
I am grateful to Doctor Ernest E. Bruder, longtime chaplain at St. Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital in Washington D.C. In class he shared a remarkable story of the power of acceptance in the treatment of mental illness. He was searching for a patient who could type the manuscript for his book, Ministering to Deeply Troubled People. He settled on his patient/secretary.…
The Meanest Man
If you know what’s good for you, you won’t visit old Owen. He’s known as the meanest man in these parts. He’s likely to shoot at you. You’ll know his place when you come to a gate bordered by barbed wire. Owen’s neighbor had my welfare at heart. His warning posed a problem. The sales supervisor repeated many times, Never miss…
Finding God on South Mountain
South Mountain was my favorite childhood haunt. My father didn’t know scientific names for flowers and trees. Nomenclature wasn’t necessary to appreciate the beauty. Creeping among the limestone rocks was the trailing arbutus. Finding this treasure was easy. Just follow the sweet aroma. My father said it was unlawful to pick arbutus. On South Mountain arbutus covered the ground like…
Be Someone’s Bible . . .
Walter was tired of sermons that didn’t seem to change anything. He happened to read an arresting statement. We may be the only Bible that many people read. He thought about the homeless man who had coffee every morning at his place of work. He walked past Jim every day without uttering a word. Maybe he could change his world…
What is Love?
The word love is used to describe how we feel about many things. We love favorite foods, pets, cars, clothes or even kitchen appliances. John 3:16 says that God loves us. His love is given to us as a gift. I learned a deeper love over my 40 years working in hospitals and hospices. A young couple married after three…