Tag: Peace

  • Advent Reflections: Peace by Piece

    Advent Reflections: Peace by Piece

    The following story is historical fiction: straight out of my imagination but inspired by actual events. During World War II, Matsuko and her family were among the many Japanese Americans forcibly interned in camps. For three years she longed to return to the farm near Salinas, California where her husband Hayato’s family had grown strawberries…

  • Are You Open for Business in Your Life?

    Are You Open for Business in Your Life?

    Arise, Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Isaiah 60:1 (NIV) Early one morning, as the regulars arrived at a popular breakfast eatery, they were greeted by a sign hanging in the window: “Sorry, closed. Inventory day.” It’s been about five years now, and the Rise and…

  • Taste of Faith: The Essence of Christianity

    Taste of Faith: The Essence of Christianity

    This is a bit from a commercial back in the day. Can you name the item? Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun. If you answered a McDonald’s Big Mac, you’re right! Out of all the ingredients, the special sauce is what makes a Big Mac so tasty.…

  • Sanctuary | Short Story

    Sanctuary | Short Story

    She peers out from the leaf-bottom woods, just across the lane from a stately home. It’s safe here, in her little square block lair, the only luxury forested lot left in an exclusive new subdivision. The autumn shadows are her friends, and she is active only at night. It’s a livable arrangement; she literally blends…

  • Embracing Life’s Seasons: Change and Growth

    Embracing Life’s Seasons: Change and Growth

    Yesterday morning amber leaves fluttered down from our front yard tree as matching butterflies flitted among them. “It’s the beginning of the end,” I said to myself, realizing that the branches would soon be empty and the butterflies gone. If only the seasons of life were so easily seen. Over the years, too many transitions…

  • A Frog in the Well

    A Frog in the Well

    Many who live out in the countryside near our little farming town have their own water wells. One such long-time community member, who was a child in the 1950s, shared how the water would occasionally turn foul–with a bad taste and smell. At that point, mom or dad would say to their youngest child, “Sonny,…