Eat, Drink And Be Merry!

    Saturday the weather wasn't great, but it was passable. A little on the cloudy side but at least it was dry. woke up a bit before 10 am, had a guick shower and headed for this restaurant that Herb said was a great place ro have breakfast. As 1 srood inside the door looking the place over, 1 heard my n缸口e being ca11ed out. 1 looked and over in the corner sat Bobby with a cup of coffee waiting for his order. 1 went and sat down and the waitress came and rook my order and scurried off. Bobby was a soft spoken man, tall and 1anky, but...

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LET THEM BE A CHILD

Santa thought of the children, and the burden some must bear. Just because their paren ts, of them will not take care. He looked up to the heavens, and a star shining bright. He thought of the Christ Child, who was born this Holy night. He knelt in his sleigh, as he flew into the night. He asked to find these children, and make their burden light. Take the burden they carry, and on their parents it be piled. Give them hope and love, and let them be a child. Joan always slept with her grandma in her big so丘bed. She carried her...

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The Call

    Over the next weeks, I watched Luke transform in front of my eyes. Where once stood a rough-around-the-edges construction worker, I now found a softened gentleman. Where turmoil had churned, peace now reigned. A thirst for the world was replaced by an unquenchable longing to drink up every bit of the Word that he'd neglected for the past years.     I'm in no way suggesting that a called minister is on a plane above any other Christian, but what I will say is that even in my own spiritually immature state, what I saw happening...

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Shoes for the Shepherd

    IT WAS MID-AFTERNOON THE NEXT day before Michah returned. He carried in his arms a fairly good -sized lamb its woolly hide shining in the sunlight.     Jubal took the lamb from the boy who released it reluctantly, holding on for a brief moment before letting it go. The old man held the lamb gently out of respect for the sacrifice it was about to make and in an effort to let the boy understand that he also understood the unspoken pain Michah was suffering.     Jubal knew the skin of this lamb would be soft and supple...

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Anchors On Layaway

    Although Poppy doled out nickels and dimes for this and that, we kids found ways to earn money. My brothers had paper routes and did chores for neighbors: shoveling snow from walks, mowing lawns, raking leaves, cleaning up after summer storms, or scooping ashes from furnaces and loading in more coal. On the morning after the County Fair carnival left town in the night, the boys arose early and raced to the fairgrounds to search for money lost by attendees and the gypsy carnies. During the war the boys sold scrap iron they'd...

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CLEOPATRA AND THE GRAPES OF WRATH

    As I grew older, I became more aware that money was scarce. I accepted this as fact and observed that money was scarce for everyfamily in town. There was no such thing as "instant gratification" in the Depression years. I understood this very well because in 1933, at age eight, I asked for a bicycle for my birthday. I didn't get one so I asked for a bicycle for Christmas. Christmas came and there was no bicycle by the tree. I had developed a mantra by my ninth birthday. I knew exactly what I wanted, "a twenty-six-inch...

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PIGS

     'Is that your car, Sir?' I looked on as the slightly overweight police officer made his way across the petrol stationforecourt towards me. As I sat behind the wheel, I observed the officer's nervous steps; the steps were matched with a tense but determined facial expression. I had always been very observant. Especially when I was irritated, and I was very irritable, and the sight of this, late thirty-something year old, round-faced, red-cheeked, white police officer, made me feel extremely irritated.     'Excuse me?'...

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