I like buying presents, especially for the Fairest Flower in all Christendom Hope. If you are married long enough (35 years this year!), then all the obvious gifts are gone. You consider what she does not know she needs, save, plan, and hope for a good surprise. Also helpful? Knowing what gift you should never, ever get, even if that gift seems sensible to you. My father-in-law is a hard working man and loving his daughter bought her a very... Read more
Small loves, in the right place, help us have great loves at the right time. The little boy looks up and sees the great man towering over him in bronze. He is impressed for a second, though he quickly moves on to something else, not being here to “learn a lesson.” And yet if one keeps putting before the boy the best in men, then he might wish to be like them. He might not and that is a condition of... Read more
What went wrong? Jesus came to give the possibility of figs in season, holidays when we need them, and work when we crave labor. What is wrong? Beauty creates desire, love, and love longs for the beloved. God, sovereign omnipotent God, could do whatever He wanted to do. God also loves us. That is frightening if you think about it, but thank God, He is good. Beauty calls to beauty and waits. Why? God has given beauty to us and... Read more
Look through a window, through another window, maybe a final window, and see God. This is how my life has been. Sometimes I have been sure of something, thought it utterly vital, only to find that there was a deeper truth, something better, that replaced what seemed so important. As a weird little kid, I remember thrilling to the legend of Arthur, King of the Britons. I pretended, pondered, and once played what I thought Arthurian music on my recorder. In Camelot,... Read more
On the road, you come to places that are marvels, known to those who live there, but unknown to you. So it was when our friends took us to Utopia, Texas a very real place and we ate breakfast, and ate some more breakfast, at The Lost Maples Cafe. The food was great, the service better, and the conversation grounded in the place. The original “Utopia” was an ideal place that whose name meant “no place” in an important political book. The... Read more
The Last Day of the Christmas Feasting Gracious friends invited us out of Houston, that great American City, to a quiet place in Texas. The house is near water and the pond draws more deer and wild turkey than I have ever seen in the wild. The food was good, the company better, and the stars were bright just like the song says they are deep in the heart of Texas. On Twelfth Night we journied to Fredericksburg for an... Read more
I cannot go to Granny’s anymore. The stocking from 1908 Preston Street, Granny’s house, is in my office now. My childhood crèche is nearby. My parents gave us wonderful Holidays and then, as Mom would say, just as we got interesting, we left. As believers in “extended family” both Daniel and I have kept nearby, but we are no longer there all the time. We are a good bit less cute. This year Hope and I had a jolly Christmas... Read more
One day in school a teacher asked what growing up with a disabled parent had taught me. I did not know what to say, because this had never occurred to me before that moment. Dad was Dad: the sort you asked for wisdom, because he knew. There were some differences, I suppose. He did not teach me to drive, though not being to blame may be in his favor. Dad had something to say, but mostly he lives a life of integrity. He was... Read more
A solution to what ails us is an eternal vision, but we begin in small things. When the shepherds rushed to the manger, they went to see a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, but did so at the impetus of a heavenly vision. The Empire of Love penetrated the mundane and gave a better vision. The shepherds saw the temporal and the eternal. These hard working men bowed to a baby, but only because of angelic hosts! Shepherds keeping... Read more
I spent the afternoon with some of the family and we were bound by love to Christmastide. This was a community of Holiday. Christmas is Love, not Opposition to Evil A great-grandfather once described a man as “so straight he leans a little.” This is the man who knows what he opposes, knows what is wrong with the world, and is motivated by his animus. Few will admit to fear, disdain, or hate which energizes their work, because the wrongness is obvious. Herod feared... Read more
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