Holy Glasses

One of the little frustrations of life occurs for me when I get my hair cut. When the hairdresser has finished cutting my hair, he hands me a mirror so I can see the back. But I can’t see a thing until I pull my glasses from under the cape and put them on. The mirror won’t do me any good without my glasses. We Christians are like the person sitting in a salon chair, being handed a mirror from God, Who says to us, “Look and see what great things I have done.” We strain to see what He is talking about, but often we miss it. Why? We need to put our glasses on.

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We Watch ’Em Fly

As a boy, I sat on my granddad’s porch one day and watched a bird pushing her little ones out of the nest. They beat their wings in a struggled frenzy. Then the moment came when they got it. They began to lift and then they were gone.

It occurred to me that the momma bird would be left alone. I asked my granddad what she would do. Looking at me in my endless chatter, he must have considered the relief that bird would know when there weren’t all those little birds crowding the nest anymore. But my granddad said, “Well…she watches ’em fly.”
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Loving in the Margins

Today the waiter who served me at lunch was a skinny college boy whose clothes hung off of him.  He wore an odd looking hat and had piercings. He was very kind to me. The girl who took my money had dyed black hair, black fingernails, multiple piercings, and a leather bracelet, but she sang a little tune to herself and she also was very kind to me. It surprised me that they were kind, and convicted me that I was surprised. I realized that they didn’t have to be kind. I was wearing a suit and looked like an upper middle class lily-white snob. I was convicted to the point of tears when I realized that all of my life I have lived without tenderness, without humility, without gentleness toward so many. I thought I was better than them. Oh, no, I never said that out loud…not with my mouth anyway.
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Spinning Tunnels

I’ve lived near Los Angeles for nearly twenty years, and I finally went to Universal Studios with my brother-in-law. We rode the tour bus past movie sets and props. Then the bus stopped in a narrow tunnel. And, because this was Hollywood, the tunnel started turning—the whole tunnel, counterclockwise.
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Stuck in the Mud

It had rained all month long. Literally. I was discouraged and worried that my tender garden, planted just 13 weeks earlier wouldn’t be able to absorb much more rain. I decided it was time to venture out into my soppy, muddy garden and inspect the damage. I slipped on a pair of old flip-flops, grabbed my garden hoe, gloves and pail, and trotted to the back of the property where my garden was planted.
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