Category: Stories

TAMAR AND HER VINDICATION (Genesis 38) The wind is dry in the hill country of Canaan. Tents pitched in a deliberate circle, as clans had done for generations — Judah’s tent closest to the center, the place of honor and command. His sons’ shelters radiated outward, servants, farthest from Judah’s, and the herds kept along…

Have you ever been to a large city emergency room late on a Friday night? It is not a quiet place. The waiting room is crowded with humanity in all its forms — young and old, wealthy and poor, every color and condition. Pain does not discriminate. Watch the doors. See the man being rushed…

It was already dark when I took my father to the emergency room. Winter darkness — the kind that settles in early and feels permanent. The kind that makes the parking lot lights hum louder than they should. He had been struggling for days, trying to brush off what his body was clearly no longer…

A STORY TOO SHORT He had just bought a new car. It wasn’t really new—nothing we owned in high school ever was—but it was new to him, and that mattered. In those days, cars weren’t important because they took you places. They were important because they said something about who you were. They were rolling…

I must have been about five years old. It was spring—warm enough that the windows were rolled down, warm enough for the air to move freely through the car. I wasn’t sitting in the back seat. In those days there were no safety seats, no seat belt laws. I was standing behind the front seat,…

(I wrote this more than 30 years ago. As I was reviewing some of my old writings, I came across this. It touched my heart. My son now has an almost 6 year old. I’m guessing he is going to be opening one of the gifts too.) I opened a Christmas present the other day.…

It’s a lonely world out there. We are busy—busy with ourselves, busy with our plans, busy gathering what we think will make life secure or impressive. We scramble and scrape for position, possessions, and recognition, all the while neglecting the people nearest to us. We reach and grab, convinced that more will finally be enough,…

A STORY TOLD IN HER VOICE The Moment That Changed Everything I was no one special. Just Mary— a girl from Nazareth, a village so small you could hear a neighbor sneeze three houses away. My days were simple: grinding grain, drawing water, stitching cloth, dreaming of the life Joseph and I would build. One…

(The following is a true story. Lynn and Sandi Bliss were traveling from Traverse City, Michigan, to Detroit to take their son, Victor to the airport. Victor had just finished his first year of College, and was going on a mission trip to Germany.) Somehow, Sandi managed to free herself from her seat belt. She…

The First Song — A God Who Loves Music The Lord your God is in your midst,    a mighty one who will save;he will rejoice over you with gladness;    he will quiet you by his love;he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17 Here I am telling my imagined story of God and His love…