During the four years that Carole had studied at Cornell her childhood faith had eroded away almost completely. It was at Christmas time she hated that the most. She wistfully remembered her naive childhood when she excepted the stories of Jesus birth without dark doubts clouding her mind. But every year at Cornell seemed to […]
Coffee and Christmas Lights
Ken and Paul sat in their dorm room and counted their change. They had returned bottles and scoured their pockets for the money. The semester was nearly over and Ken would make his way home to Ohio and Paul would spend Christmas in Houston. Between the two they had enough to buy coffee at Starbucks, […]
Christmas Plumbing
I’ve always enjoyed going to the in-laws for Christmas. Some years they seem tolerant of me, too. Mostly I think they just want me to get Lois and the kids and the presents there and then stay out of the way. I have really never been very good at keeping out of the way. I […]
Christmas Merriment
It’s Christmas again, the season of love and good will. It is the season of undying hope and Christian charity. It is the time of the year when kindness wells up within the most hardened souls. Christmas is the season when we look forward to the sound of carols, and sleigh bells, and most of […]
A Christmas Gift From Heaven
Today is Hannah’s Birthday. She is twenty-three today. Today I’m re-posting a poem I wrote when she was born: Our snow-enshrouded home was nestled neath God’s providential care Anticipating the arrival of a special package there. Then as if dispatched from heaven borne on angel-wings A parcel came to rest among our festive fashionings What […]
Alive to Wonder
Last Christmas Eve I was sitting in our cozy home when I felt a tug to go to a downtown church for the Christmas Eve service. I got my topcoat and keys and headed out. Kyle and Hannah went along. It was perfect. Snow was falling in the city. The service was everything you could […]