“At once, the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days,” Mark writes. It was Jesus’ first mission after being baptized and blessed by God. He was with wild animals, he was tempted by Satan, and, eventually, he was fed by angels. He understood, from the inside, hunger. […]

A couple years ago, I started writing through Mark. At least that’s what I said I was going to do. When I look back, there are 39 posts in the series, which wandered and then eventually faded away in May. There was a new grandson that year (Happy Birthday today, Ben), and a big research […]

It’s a Jesus story for kids. A man can’t hear and can’t speak clearly. His friends bring him to where Jesus was. Jesus sticks his fingers in the man’s ears. And then Jesus spits on his own finger and touches the man’s tongue. It’s all gross, at least for a kid. Until the man starts […]