Category: Imago Dei
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Spared
I am not sure what spared the tree or why it was still standing. Maybe after a chainsaw had been laid against the trunk, the machine gave up its ghost. Maybe a wannabe tree-feller grew tired, after he whacked his unsharpened ax at the bark of the pine. Either way,…
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Rufmord
“Reputation-Murder” is the literal translation of the German word Rufmord. In German, the word gives a powerful picture of the intentional destruction of a name, the slanderous accusations with the intent to kill a person’s honor. Rufmord happens more often than you think, and when it does, the person’s integrity…
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Of Pencil Plans and Lasting Letters
She gently ran her index finger along the sharpened point of the pencil I held out to her. She looked at me as if I had brought her a bag of gold. “How did you get this pencil to be so sharp?”She was 81 and my boss. I smiled and…
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Enough!
Be gone, O gloom, from heart and mind!Has your God died, not death defied?Give heed to what you see and hear –The bird on porch, the sky so clear.Hold to the Truth you once proclaimed,When first the Gospel you unchained,When all of you knew deepest joy,When eyes and ears exposed…
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Of What If’s and the I AM — A Prayer
I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear…
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Caught in Between
I sit on the edge of my footstool and look out into a frigid dawn. My phone app says 11 below. I can feel the frost. It’s trying to seep through the tiniest cracks in the window and under the blanket I put across my lap. Condensation has collected at…
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Mountain Grandeur
There sits between mountains a mirrorReflecting the Kings love and might.The lake speaks to only the hearer –Shows Heaven to those who have sight. Rising geese sing the song of the age,As if trumpets of bands far away.Beneath mountains for glorious stageClouds draw back and point to the play. A…
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The Night After Christmas
Christmas is over. The house is quiet. Sheets and towels softly tumble in the dryer. The dishwasher is swooshing almost unnoticeably. Our kids and their spouses went back home. Everything moves quickly past. Even the garbage was picked up this morning. The disposable dessert plates and shreds of…
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Dreads and Bulky
I was in a hurry. Annoyed, I weaved my cartful of groceries around the man and his dog. Both stood right by the exit of the big box store. What an odd couple at an odd place. He was thin and tall, thirty-something. Long, black dreads fell into…
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The Christmas Card
Today, the envelope arrived. Each year, with the beginning of Advent, I carefully comb the daily mail for this letter. NEW YORK, NY is stamped next to the cursive return address. I run my finger across the beautiful stamp, a rendition of a renaissance oil painting of Virgin and Child.…
Heidi Viars 