December brought record-breaking warm temperatures throughout the northeast, with Christmas Eve hitting a balmy 70 degrees in northern New York. Because of this trend, a number of mornings we woke to a heavy fog covering the earth. Motorists were cautioned to drive with care because of limited visibility. Isn’t our journey through life like travelling through fog? We make our plans, envisioning results to unfold a certain way as we strain to peek ahead, anticipating what may or may not be around the next corner. Then sometimes, life throws the unforeseen curve ball at us, and we end up travelling…
With holiday time in full swing, it’s interesting to consider the traditions associated with Christmas. What do decorated trees and wreaths, yule logs, Santa Claus, Christmas cookies, and jingle bells have to do with the birth of Christ? Answer: Nothing! What does December 25 have to do with the birth of Jesus Christ? Answer: Nothing! Research reveals that Jesus was actually born in the fall of the year. Almost all the customs of Christmas stem from ancient pagan festivals honoring other gods, and didn’t begin until some 300 years after Christ’s death. And although the Bible records details about the…
My family comes from a long line of worry warts. Not the mild concern type worry, but the all-consuming hand-wrenching worry that puts knots in your stomach and keeps you up at night. My dad was a master worrier. It intensified as he got older and moved to a nursing home. He worried about me driving at night, about his grandkids making good choices, about the weather tomorrow. He would often say with a smile “I have a lot of time on my hands. I need something to worry about!” He wasn’t alone. Many people’s lives are consumed with worry….
Well-known radio broadcaster, the late Paul Harvey, told a heartfelt story on air every December that people loved. It portrays why an invisible God sent His Son to earth as a man. What follows is a condensed version of the story. Enjoy! Once there was a skeptical, non-religious man who just couldn’t swallow the “Jesus story” about God coming to earth as a man. One snowy evening as he sat by the fire reading, he was startled by a loud thud against his house. Then another, and another. He went outside to discover a flock of birds huddled miserably…
Last week I enjoyed an afternoon bike ride with my husband on a scenic rail trail in Pennsylvania. It was one of those October days in which the sun felt warm and the shade cool. Trees hinting yellow leaves lined both sides of the seemingly endless path, while the only sound was leaves crunching beneath bike tires. Robert Frost’s well-known poem “The Road Not Taken” came to mind—“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood . . . .” The poet expresses coming to a juncture and pondering which path to take—knowing all too well that as he starts down one…
