As a kid, I had broken my landspeeder by now or at least made it valueless to future collectors. Presents improve as you get older. Yesterday Dad gave me a gift that has endured three generations of my family. My great-grandfather Lewis Dayton Reynolds rode the circuit of churches in his area of West Virginia (early on with his faithful horse!) from 1912 to 1945. The year young Pastor Reynolds got the call the RMS Titanic sank and World War... Read more

We bought a glorious tree of the sort I once called a Filostrato Tree. The purchase and the wonder that followed buying an artificial tree meant I was wrong and my brother was right. That’s bad enough, but after some thought it made me realize I had missed an important point in my favorite novel: That Hideous Strength by over focusing on the example at the expense of the message. The message is vital if we are to find happiness in this life... Read more

Now that the stores are not pestering us, we can get down to serious gift giving. Boxing Day, the Feast of Stephen, is a good day to give. Why? Saint Stephen gave his life so others might live in the truth. From that time forward, Christians have given materially and immaterially. Yet beware: living for stuff (any stuff) is bad. We are higher beings than those that can be satisfied with material things. Materialism: do not do it. Yet do... Read more

It is the first day of Christmastide! This is the day where we get to see reality and reality is more hopeful than I often feel. If you have messed up as I have, then hope seems foolish. I am not a hero nor likely to play one in the movies. The best thing I have done is to marry well and be part of the lives of four wonderful (now adult) children. I am sorry for the wrong and look... Read more

Tonight one strong woman made sure another strong woman would spend eternity in Paradise. In the Genesis story, our first mother and father (Adam and Eve) said “no” to God. They were allowed to do so and given what they had chosen freely. Our “no” meant “no” and humankind was allowed to do what it could to construct an alternative cosmic order. This attempt went badly. Often we denied what is to embrace our own imaginations, but more frequently we... Read more

It turns out that you can build a house a bit like build-a-bear: one piece at a time. The stuff comes over time and eventually, if one persists, good things happen. Yet a home requires people and here is an important truth: people are not pieces. People are people and using them to do anything is bad. So here is the bad news: that includes looking to people to “save” you. When we got married, I was twenty-two and safe... Read more