When I started babysitting my best friends’ little boys 2 ½ years ago, I didn’t realize how much I’d learn from children’s books.
Most children’s books are designed to teach something—whether a lesson, a moral, animal sounds, or counting. However, most of the time, the lessons I learn from the books aren’t the ones the books intended (unless of course there is more than one way to interpret the story, which I guarantee there is).
I was reading (well, actually, singing) We’re Going on a Bear Hunt to Monkey and Hedgie (these aren’t names to protect their identities, but actual nicknames for my best friends’ little boys), and was struck by the story’s profundity…
During RSV season earlier this year, I accompanied by best friend and her two little boys to the doctor’s office. The 2-month-old was going in for a regular checkup, the 2-year-old for what we thought was a severe cold, but which we discovered was RSV.
Having two babies and three adults in a room the size of a walk-in closet was a recipe for chaos. Add in immunizations, and unforeseen nasal swabs and chest x-rays, and the chaos only intensified…
My husband loves all critters in the Animal Kingdom, so a couple of months ago, he purchased two baby tarantulas.
Part of a tarantula’s maturation involves molting (aka, moulting). Molting is the process by which an animal sheds feathers, skin, hair, and/or its outer shell at distinct times throughout its lifespan in order to make room for new growth…
Several months ago in church, we sang a song with the following lyric: “We cast away our shadows, trust you with our sorrows.”
I’ve since learned the song is called “Joy” by Rend Collective. It’s quickly become a song of obsession.
Shortly after hearing this song, I read the following verse during one of my morning devotionals, “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’” (Jeremiah 2.8, NRSV)…
On Tuesday mornings when I pray for my friends, I use the above image from Matthew 9 to center my prayer.
Though the passage doesn’t use the word κοινωνία (koinonia), I think the scene is the epitome of it.
Koinonia is the Greek word used to describe the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It’s also the word used to describe our relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. And therefore, it’s the word used to describe our relationship to one another.
