by Barry Creamer | May 24, 2023 | Devotionals
In ancient Israel, as much of the Mediterranean Basin, with no police, no formal court system, justice comes at the hand of a kinsman-redeemer, an avenger (same term). In one case, you are involved in the tragic but accidental death of your neighbor. His brother, the...
by Barry Creamer | May 17, 2023 | Devotionals
Observing the sun through a telescope has blinded a lot of people and melted a lot of optics, and therefore requires a filter to eliminate 99.999%—that’s the real proportion; not hyperbole—of incoming light. So just before dawn I cover my scope’s aperture with solar...
by Barry Creamer | May 10, 2023 | Devotionals
Before the next graduate entered my office, I could hear her crying, administrators buoying her with affirmations. After some Lamaze breathing, she seemed composed again, ready to be delivered her diploma. Our Vice President for Academic Affairs led her to the...
by Barry Creamer | May 3, 2023 | Devotionals
God invites—commands—us to speak with him. And before we ask, “But what should we say?”, he has already written and delivered to us an entire book of poetic prayers to read or recite back to him. Circumstance invites—compels—us to speak with God, to implore his...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 26, 2023 | Devotionals
Altruism. Between curfew and quarantine I have learned something of bird behavior from the back yard feeder. Tiny tufted titmice skitter from black-capped chickadees, in turn shooed by mere sparrows. Sparrows are rousted by cardinals, cardinals banished by Blue Jays,...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 19, 2023 | Devotionals
Four centuries ago, a man who died before he was forty wrote these seasoned words: “Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky; The dew shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die. “Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave Bids the rash...
