When I remember what the locusts have eaten in my life through death, illness, rebellion, injury, sin, and more – I feel anger, sorrow, and frustration. But I also feel a longing for it all to be made right. Sadly, what humans unleashed in the Garden still slithers through our lives today, looking for something or someone to devour. In this world, locusts will always eat things.

Throughout the Bible, God refers to himself as our Shepherd, as does Jesus in the New Testament. But shepherd is just one of many metaphors God uses to help us understand him and our relationship with him. Of all the metaphors in the Bible that he could have referenced in the birth announcement, why did he choose to highlight this one?

A unique series of events brought me to a small stone house in the middle of a desert one hot summer day. The old cottage was tired but intriguing with its sagging, dusty floors, shabby furnishings, and curtains that crumbled when touched. With the air of a good poker player holding cards close to the chest, the structure made me wish the walls could talk.

One chilly fall day in 2004, I stood looking out my living room window, but my mind wasn't on the neighborhood kids playing or the changing leaves. Instead, it was hundreds of miles away, focused on my grandfather, who had called to tell me about his initial home visit with a hospice intake nurse…

There’s more to the act of celebrating than meets the eye. I learned this lesson through a hard experience when I was thirteen.

Sheep can become cast on their backs in several ways, and so can we. In the spiritual realm, casting is a state of being discouraged in one’s soul.

We long for quiet time - yet when silence comes, we are tempted to fill it with more noise. What might we experience if we embrace the occasional silent night?

Like waves of water and light, our words and actions have consequences. They ripple forward, but thankfully, also backward - all the way to the cross.