We’ve started talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus begins his longest recorded sermon by diving right in to descriptions of people found in that kingdom (poor in spirit, mourning, meek, merciful, etc.), which sound much more like people on this earth than those experiencing eternal bliss. Yet, his statements of how such individuals are…
Over the years I have witnessed and participated in a variety of Christmas pageants (I made a good furry sheep) and have seen plenty of Nativity crèches, from tiny wooden ornaments to “live” representations. I largely accepted the scenes as moderately accurate. I eventually learned that despite the common appearance of three Magi in the…
It was 2001. My family had arrived in Kazakhstan in 1996, the first American family in our town, and been joined by other Americans and Aussies over the next several years. It was a fairly isolated place, and we certainly didn’t have Facebook and Zoom to remain connected to friends and family in our sending…
When you hear the word “heaven,” what comes to mind? It seems in today’s culture we have created a general association with dazzling light above the clouds, perhaps with a stairway leading to it, a gate at its entrance, and/or some angels playing harps. While some of these ideas are based on biblical references…
The steep road was the kind where those who get car sick (me) have to avoid looking out the window. We were not quite sure of our exact destination (attempts to contact a local pastor had not yet been successful) as we headed up a mountain in the center of the island of Puerto Rico,…
As we read through the Beatitudes (so far covering the poor in spirit and those who mourn), we encounter a word I don’t hear very often in daily conversation: Meek. Jesus used this word, also translated at gentle or humble, to draw a fairly strong conclusion: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the…