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You are the Pearl of Great Price
A second marriage brings with it a number of regrets. If onlys tend to crop up. If only, we think, we knew then what we know now. If only we weren’t dragging along an ex-husband or ex-wife and the damages from that marriage into the new one. I was thinking along those dispirited lines one morning several months into my marriage to my wonderful husband as I read the parable in Matthew about the pearl of great price. Sometimes too many sermons on a subject will close our minds to the possibilities in the Word, and so I reread the familiar parable, imagining as the pearl, the gospel of Christ. We…
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Three Questions That Lead to Self Forgiveness
After a decade of no contact, my sixteen year old daughter lived with her father for about six months. While I didn’t sleep a full night during that time, she seemed happy for the first three. After that, things began to go south rather quickly, and soon, she came home, to both of our relief. One day soon after, while we were at the grocery store, she mentioned that her whole life she had assumed that our divorce was her fault. She had never mentioned this to me, the idea that somehow my divorce from an abuser could be laid at her feet. But before I could begin my strenuous objections…
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God, Man, and Animals: A Kind of Paradise Explored
That bulls are dangerous animals is without question. So when one attacked my friend, Mike, I was hardly surprised. After all, I lived in Kentucky and witnessed firsthand a bull taking out the corner of a neighbor’s brick house in a frenzied rage. When his dairy cows had acted as a unit to save his life, Mike entered the Dairy Farmer’s Hall of Fame (Well, he would if there was one). His girls, as he called them, were docile and affectionate. His farm was small enough that he knew each of his cattle by name. Theirs was a relationship of cooperation as he relieved their swollen udders twice a day,…
Healing Through Art & Words
