Every year, a single word seems to rise above the noise and capture what my heart is yearning for. For 2026, God has nudged me toward the word “restore”. It’s a word filled with hope, patience, and quiet strength. Restore implies that something valuable already existed, was damaged or worn down, and is now being carefully brought back to life. Many of you know about my husband’s health crisis that has rocked our family in incalculable ways. We are weary, as well as physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. When I consider all that is involved in restoring an object, I…

Past stars and galaxies, the glittering lights of mysteries beyond I flew. I was not alone. No, an entire heavenly congregation soared with me. We danced past shimmering hosts and luminescent wonders, winging and dancing, spiraling and speeding past the diamonds of the Holy One’s masterpiece until we pushed past the transparent glass of the blue marbled planet’s firmament. I breathed in the frigid air, peering through the night sky, to look down on this strange place…the King’s new home. Humble. Broken. Needy. Such a startling contrast from the glory of whence He had come. Indeed, the raw starkness of it swirled…

In 1944, Corrie Ten Boom was suffering with pain and edema, likely due to starvation, as she languished in the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. With Christmas approaching, she was desperate to find any source of goodness or light. As she reminisced about Christmas’s past, with her family’s massive Christmas tree, candles, mouth-watering food, and festively wrapped gifts, her heart yearned for just one glimmer of those nostalgic, warm feelings to surface. Instead, as she shuffled between barracks of the concentration camp, her stiff legs aching, she saw ‘the saddest Christmas trees’ she’d ever witnessed. Jutting up in the middle of camp…

In her book The Wind in the Door, Madeline L’Engle explores a powerful truth: names matter. In the story, she shows that when someone misnames you, when they call you something other than who you really are, it diminishes you. It strips away your identity. And if you believe the lie long enough, you begin to disappear. The world is quick to slap labels on us. “You’re too thin.” “You’re too fat.” “You’re not good enough.” “You’re unwanted. “Your diagnosis determines your future.” These words sting, don’t they? And if we’re not careful, they begin to define us. We start…

When I see the hatred poured out against Charlie, I feel it personally. He is my brother in Christ. His wife is my sister. Those who hate him so vehemently hate me too. And yet, I refuse to let that hatred plant fear in my heart. Charlie was more than a hero to me. He is a symbol of courage—of standing boldly when the world demands silence. His life, and even the opposition against him, has stirred something deep within me. It has reminded me that faith is not about safety or comfort. It is about trust in God, obedience…

In her book Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom tells the story of an old woman she met in Russia in the time of the Communist persecution of Christians during the Cold War: The old woman was lying on a small sofa propped up by pillows. Her body was bent and twisted almost beyond recognition by the dread disease of multiple sclerosis. Her aged husband spent all his time caring for her since she was unable to move off the sofa … [The only part of her body she could control was her right hand. And with the index…