mary – 300 words a day

Advent 6: Hungry

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US, food is plentiful and hunger scarce. At least that’s what many people talk about as they complain of weight gain and holiday parties. However, anyone with connections to food banks and helping agencies is aware that gas bills often eat better than their owners. People who live at […]

by Jon Swanson

Advent 5: Humble

Humble. When it describes a building or a job, it means small, menial, inferior. When it describes a person, it means not full of yourself. In the first case, it approaches insult. In the latter, compliment. We don’t want to live in humble abodes or do menial work, but we would love to be known […]

by Jon Swanson

Advent 4: Uncertain

A girl is somewhere. No one knows exactly where. She could be at home. She is inside somewhere. She is, we know, in a town called Nazareth. An angel shows up and tells her that God is happy with her. Her response? She is very perplexed. She is agitated. In her mind she goes over […]

by Jon Swanson

The personal touch

Martha calmly conversed. Mary dissolved in tears. Two sisters, same dead brother. They both talked with Jesus, each with different experiences. After Lazarus died and Martha heard that Jesus was in town, she went and talked with him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” They had a conversation, Jesus […]

by Jon Swanson

maybe I understand Mary better tonight

I usually end up writing sometime between 10 and 11 at night. I sit on the sofa with Nancy and watch TV or talk (or both) and then I come in and turn on a fan and start to write. Or start to try to write. Usually I look around the Internet a bit, getting […]