"The bright red coat caught my eye first..." A flash of red caught the corner of my eye from my chair on the screened-in porch. Looking up from my book, I watched a pair of cardinals flitter from tree branches to the pond and back again. “Did the vibrant male cardinal and its duller-coated female have a nest nearby? Or was this a courting dance for the pair?” I wondered. Now intrigued, I raised my eyes to the distant garden bed and gasped with delight as several iridescent

"We can cry out to God too..." In one of today’s devotional readings, I was struck by a spiritual truth about blindness. In reality, we are all blind beggars until we truly see and encounter Jesus. In the gospel passage in Mark chapter 10, Jesus is ministering in the city of Jericho. Scripture says that Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, ha

"His Voice beckons..." I arose early, still groggy with sleep, as I slid my feet into my house slippers and donned my cotton robe. Sliding on a pair of glasses, I shuffled to the coffee maker for my morning cup of tea. The screened patio beckoned as I curled up in my chair with a furry blanket on the unusually cool May morning. Peace hung in the air with its stillness. It was early, so I drank in the quiet like a warm cup of tea. Only a few chirping birds interrupted the re