A Three-Legged Pony in a Thoroughbred Race

Throughout most of my life, a spare tire was the difference between a flat ending a road trip and only delaying it—a fact affirmed by the axiomatic idiom about rubber meeting road. My teenaged kids all learned to change tires because their treads (and ours) were as...

The Divide

As our vehicle approaches the summit of Wolf Creek Pass in Southwest Colorado, I explain the concept of the continental divide to 2 of my young grandchildren. Ascending one moment, I explain that if a flake of snow falls on this side of the mountain, when it melts, it...

God Confronts Us With the Absurd

Mary’s objection to Gabriel is more right than she knows. “How will this be…?” means “This is not possible.” And it is not. An announcement cannot make a virgin pregnant. Per Solomon’s prayer and Jesus’ own words to a Samaritan woman: God cannot be contained or...

The Cliff Arrives

Something is wrong but, without orientation, you can only piece things together as others press and jostle you along the way. Some appear more sure-footed than you, some less. Some move deliberately with speed, some passively with the crowd, others reluctantly,...