Even as the apostle Paul exhorts his readers in first-century Galatia to remember the adoption of God that envelops all hurts and abandonments, we bear witness to the truth that no...

Glory to God in the highest,” proclaim the angels at Jesus’ birth. Birth is always a miraculous event, a happening that evokes praise for our Creator and brings forth new life....

The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up.” Every Christmas morning for the past twenty-five years I have sprung up out of my bed to celebrate with children...

The stable has always intrigued me. Not the shepherds and wise men, so-called. Not Joseph and Mary. But the stable. The idea of it. The feel of it. The smell of...

Every parent who has been present at their child’s birth will tell a variation on the same experience: the most amazing thing ever! Words cannot contain the range of emotion. I...

I live in midtown Manhattan amid a forest of tall buildings— with many more under construction. Wandering among these massive structures, some with impressive cranes pricking the sky, can make a...

It has never been harder to encourage sustained spiritual behaviors among people who are attracted to The Way Jesus blazed. Your reading this devotional is a minority activity, probably even among...

At the time of Jesus’ birth, Israel groaned under Roman oppression. The Israelites yearned for release from the harsh yoke, in part because an aspect of Jewish identity was bound up...

The young woman who came to see me one December was in her early twenties and obviously pregnant. As she spilled out her story, tears welled in her eyes. She had...

When God gave the law to Moses, God instructed him on how to build a tabernacle. Throughout Israel’s history, from Mount Sinai to the reign of David, the tabernacle had functioned...