In Gennesaret

“Joy to the world!” we sang a couple nights ago. I love the Christmas Eve service at my church. Very traditional, very sweet. "The Lord has come." Yes, he is here! “Let earth receive her king!” Yes, earth – do so! “Let every heart prepare him room . . .” And that stopped me short. Because I haven’t thought about that line much, I don’t think. Prepare him room . . . every heart must do that, including mine . . .   how exactly do I prepare room in my heart for Jesus? I have a guest room in my little house, and when I have someone coming to visit, I prepare that room for them. I dust and sweep and check for cobwebs (and random dead wasps and scorpions – I do live in Texas, y’all). I change bed linens, making the bed comfortable for sleeping in the current season. I make sure the clock is set correctly and the closet has room for their items. I also have a little bookshelf in there where I put books my guest might be interested in. (I got that from my mother-in-law, who alw...

I was the substitute teacher in my Sunday School class yesterday, the Joy Sunday of Advent. So we talked about joy. Which is literally (and perhaps ironically) my middle name. Ironically because I’ve struggled a lot with depression and discontentment over the years. I would read scripture like Galatians 5 and think, what is this “joy” you speak of? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I certainly had happy times. Lots of them, for sure. But there’s a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is more dependent on external factors and is therefore more fleeting and temporary. Joy is an internal state, the condition of one’s life. And Jesus told us he intended for us to have his joy, to have complete joy. And . . . nope. Couldn’t say I could relate to that one. So, yeah. Joy. What made me think it was a good idea for me to teach about this in Sunday School? Mainly because I was recently reminded of an analogy I heard years ago: the image of a pilot taxiing an airplane down the h...

“Some people love dogs; I love trees,” my friend shared with our group a while ago. She said she names the trees in her neighborhood, and I thought that was sweet. So, while I was out on my walk the next day, I started looking at the trees and considering what names they should have. This one reminds me of that stern, elderly man in my church growing up – Dale. This one is squatty and fat, but with a vibrant green spread on top – LaOuida. This young thing is still holding its arms close, afraid to branch out – Timmy. But we have this cool kind of tree down here in South Texas: the Live Oak. For the record “live oak” doesn’t mean the opposite of a dead oak. It’s a particular type of oak, and they are some of the coolest trees ever. They grow all haywire in fascinating swirls around the yard. And not just the branches at the top – the trunks themselves are all catawampus. Some (like the one in this picture) almost look like two freakish trees melded together. It's not unusual to se...