Grains of Sand

In 1979, a gal by the name of Lillian Heron gave me a copy of the New International Version of the Bible. I have pretty much worn its cover and its pages out over the years. It has become my favourite copy of the many I have. I suspect it is my favourite because the print is large and the margins are wide, allowing me to write notes throughout. When I come to Proverbs 3, just about all thirty-five of the verses have an asterisk beside them. At some point I went through the chapter and put a mark beside all the benefits of wisdom that the chapter mentions. Proverbs is a book of wise advice, but this chapter specifically focuses on the good stuff that comes when godly wisdom becomes a chief characteristic of a believer. Today as I sit in my new office with a new desk and a new chapter in my life's book before me, I was reminded of the words of Proverbs 3:33: " ...he blesses the home of the righteous. " This new place is a great gift (even if the smoke alarms go off ...

Christmas Memories 5 Today marks the anniversary of my mother's passing. But please don't think this post is going to be a "downer." On the contrary, though that Christmas some eighteen years ago was the worst Christmas my brother and I will ever experience, it morphed into perhaps the best one anyone could have planned. I didn't have the same plans that God did for that Christmas. My father had passed away three months earlier, and my greatest desire was to make this first Christmas without dad a good one for mom. The baking and gifts that I planned to take north with me were done when I got the call to tell me that mom had suffered a massive heart attack. I wondered if I would make it home in time to see her. All night on the bus (the only way I could make the trip north just days before Christmas) I willed the driver to go faster. When I arrived at the hospital direct from the bus station, mom actually looked good. By the afternoon, she was failing and shortly ...