Pamela met me at the chapel door, her face bright with eagerness as she showed me the shoebox in her hands. It was full of dried grass and moss and some...

Rainy days give me a slow, sleepy kind of feeling. While I usually enjoy these days, sometimes even when I seem to have no reason to feel sad, I feel dreary....

As a 20-year-old Bible school graduate, I kissed my parents goodbye and went to teach the Bible in Southeast Asia. I had planned the whole adventure on my own and was...

My hand reached for the gift as everyone in the congregation watched. I pulled the brown book toward me, admiring its big, gold lettering. HOLY BIBLE was stamped across the front....

My mother enjoys jigsaw puzzles. She starts with the edges and works inward — slowly bringing order to the chaos of small pieces. The process is challenging but satisfying. One puzzle...

When I dig a seashell out of the sand, I first turn it one way and then the other to see its condition. Does it have chips or cracks, or is...

I walked out of the nursing home feeling like a failure. I had gone to visit a friend and to tell him about the good news of Jesus. Yet, as usual,...

Four-year-old James climbed into his car seat, and we drove off. “My eyes are closing down,” he announced sleepily. No wonder! He had just spent a long day playing on the...

In March 2003 I had a serious stroke. It was an especially difficult time because I am left-handed and was paralyzed on my left side for quite a while. I don’t...

My husband and I hiked down to the lake, which lay still in the early morning sunshine. Its surface perfectly reflected the world above — hills of dark green fir and...