A Classic re-post from 2001
We went on our annual Christmas tree excursion Saturday. If you don’t have beautiful fluffy white snow blanketing the brown earth, bright sunshine on a cold winter day is the next best weather for getting the tree. We stopped for donuts and cappuccino. On the way we sang a few carols.
At the farm all ten of us spilled out and hiked back a lane and over a little hill to where the trees grew. Most of them were huge but there were still dozens small enough …

A Classic Christmas re-post for you to enjoy from 2004
One Saturday afternoon years ago I was working in the parsonage yard. It was cold and blustery. The first snow of the season took me by surprise. I welcomed it. Christmas was approaching. I noticed an unusual amount of traffic on our county road. All of it was southbound. I stepped into the house to warm up and wrapped my hands around a hot cup of coffee.

The old man rests in his chair in the corner of a shady porch. He lives there in the tasteful house alone surrounded by his books and his memories. He is a happy man loved by family and friends. His children and their families often visit on weekends but he spends much of his time alone reading and writing. Every morning and every evening he walks along the lakeshore drinking in the seasons like a child gathering shells on the beach. He prays on …

Last night as evening fell, I found myself in the country enjoying a mellow and comely summer evening. I aimed my chair toward a far-away tree line in the west and read under a huge walnut tree while Lois took photos of our new grand-niece, Bailey Hope. Her big brothers, Riley and Wyatt (do these people have a way with names or what?) played with Hope nearby. I’m sure pictures of wee Bailey will surface within a few days at www.loispierpont.com.
Just as evening fell into the trees and …

Last night I checked the mail and it is official. All my requirements for my Master’s Degree from Moody Graduate School are now complete. I started six years ago almost to the day.

I used to own a bank, but I lost it. Actually, it was taken away from me. My Dad took it. My aunt gave it to me. It was a Christmas present. She made it herself. It was a green Cocker Spaniel bank. It was sort of a kosher-version of the classical piggy-bank. It was ceramic. It sat right on my dresser and I kept my allowance in it. Every week I put a couple nickels in it. I …

I stumbled across this little piece on my hard-drive today looking for something else. It interested me. Maybe it will interest you, too. About a year ago I preached in the church where my little brother is the pastor. Here is how I introduced the message:

I have a pastor friend who is hurting. After years of pastoring the same church he was betrayed by a near associate and the church he spent his entire ministry building split leaving him devastated. Within a few months he had a major physical set-back. I spoke with him on Christmas Eve. He is a wounded man.

I have a tradition. I write a Christmas story for my family every year. I read it on Christmas Eve or on Christmas night. Tonight (Christmas 2005) after everything else was over we all sat down and I read the story for this year.
After the story we had pumpkin pie. It was a beautiful day. I have included the story here, Brad’s Christmas Prayer. I hope you like it. The next post is last year’s story, Highland Park
Brad’s Christmas Prayer
Brad …

There is such joy in giving. I had just a taste of it when I was young.
When I was about fourteen years old I made fifteen dollars a week delivering the Dayton Journal Herald Monday through Saturday morning. In my neighborhood was a small store with bikes and toys and hardware called Western Auto. I was browsing in the store one day about a month before Christmas and my eyes fell on something I had always wanted myself when I was younger. It was …