A few weeks ago, while sitting with friends around the dining room table, I perceived a lull in the conversation. Spotting my chance, I eagerly spoke up.

Hey! Has anyone picked their word for 2025?

Silence.

Quickly backtracking, I (cheerfully) asked if everyone had picked a word for 2024. And if so, did they remember it?

I found another awkward silence.

Since I knew the word of one of the people sitting at the table, I reminded her. She smiled uncomfortably and suddenly found something to study on the tabletop.

Oh shoot, I thought. Remember Deane, not everyone is a word-of-the-year nerd like you are.

So lately when I pray, I sometimes visualize Jesus sitting across from me at the table. I want to sense his presence. So I wait. Words are few at first. I linger, sensing and welcoming his closeness. I realize his invitation for me to rest with him.

Our family moved into our big old house thirty years ago.

In those years, we have received spooky night visitors looking for hospitality.

These scary outsiders did not receive an invitation nor did they knock on the door, asking for entrance.

No.

Usually, they squeezed their way in when it was dark and we were asleep in our beds.

Somewhere between silver and gold shines this lovely deep blue stone, celebrating 45 years of busy careers, raising children, celebrating weddings, inviting cherished in-laws, rejoicing over five dear grandchildren, burying our parents, many mission trips, growing in our faith, and finding Jesus to be so important. Now, in our retired years, we find ourselves serving others and giving back to the life we have truly cherished.

Do you have days when you feel like you just aren’t enough?

Maybe you think you aren’t rich enough, organized enough, smart enough, thin enough, or pretty enough. Or perhaps you’re worried that you don’t have enough of what it takes to accomplish the work you’ve been asked to do.

And so you pray, God, may I have more, please?

Striving for more seems to be a part of the American Dream!

I should be able to work hard, make more money, get more stuff…and ultimately feel “more” happy.

But I wonder, Is that how it really works?

King David wrote in Psalm 8:3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You set in place…

David’s “stopping to consider,” led him to deeper questions. He wondered, What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

I guess he wondered why God would care for people when the universe was so magnificent. I wonder that myself sometimes.

After learning that my name means “dweller in the valley,” I head out to walk my usual early morning route, up the street from my house and into our neighborhood city park.

Alone today, I can notice my thoughts and surroundings attentively.

The sun is already up, bright and mid-horizon with a cloudless sky overhead and my mind is full of “dweller in the valley” thoughts.

What might it be like to dwell in a valley?

Walking into the new Mexican restaurant today, I saw my friend, and smiled a hearty greeting! After hugging hello and deciding what to eat, we got down to catching up on our lives since we last got together a few months ago. We talked and ordered and talked and got our food and talked while we ate, and finally, I asked the question I’d been eager to ask:

“So, have you found your word for 2024?”

She laughed warmheartedly and replied with a grin, “I knew you would ask, and yes! I am ready with my word.”

I pulled out my pen and scribbled her words on the little notebook I kept in my purse.

When I was a young girl, my mother gave me a small note card on which she had written the Lord’s Prayer.

Using her black Flair felt-tipped pen, she had written: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…

She encouraged me to memorize this prayer and say it at church during the liturgy, which I did, and have said hundreds of times since.

But this morning, I found myself praying that phrase again, “Thy kingdom come.”

As I spoke it out, I wondered, What am I asking when I pray it?

Maybe I’m asking:

Jesus, come back soon and be our king!

Let me be a part of your kingdom work here and now today!

God, please come back and set the world right!

Maybe it means all these things.

I need a dog today.

A small one will do; one that fits comfortably in my lap. 

She could be brown and furry, or black with dark eyes, soft and sleepy.

I close my eyes and see her, feel her warmth, and find her presence reassuring. 

With bright eyes, Oliver shouted, “Grandma, look at all the buckeyes!”

And indeed, a bumper crop had fallen. I told him that every fall, for years, I walked by these trees, and picked up a few delightful seeds to put in a bowl or on a shelf. It was like picking up colorful leaves or dried wildflowers, a true sign of fall. Finding them felt like we were happening upon abundant treasure.

With much excitement, he took charge, “Let’s take some home!”

Just this morning, I heard on the radio, that we Americans are finding fewer peaches in our stores this summer. Warm weather in the South and cold weather in the Midwest knocked out a significant number of our nation’s peach crops, leaving shortages across the country. Georgia’s production is down 90-95% and South Carolina’s is down 60-70%. California, on the other hand, is producing a solid crop. So peaches are available but not as many, and the prices have risen…

Last week I drove to a friend’s house for an afternoon visit. After settling into comfortable chairs on her back porch with glasses of water close by, she and I happily caught up on our lives since we last met in that same spot a year ago. We talked about our kids, our churches, our writing, and the work we find ourselves doing. I loved all of it! Toward the end, we came upon one of my favorite topics and spent the rest of our time there, sharing our thoughts:

How do we grow and feel closer to God?

We are so thankful to know that we are loved by God, but there are times when it is hard to feel that love.

Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone within one’s power to punish or harm.

I guess we could rewrite that to say, God blesses those who forgive those who don’t deserve it.

As always, I look at the scripture and ask myself questions to dig deeper into my experience and into the truth that I find there. What am I bearing witness to? What am I seeing with my own eyes that I know to be true? What is my own life story shining a light on?

In Matthew, 11:28 Jesus is quoted as saying, Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Jesus offers to take the cross, our burdens, off our backs. He’s eager to carry those burdens for us, as offered in Isaiah 53: 4, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Do you have a heaviness that you have been unable to lift from your shoulders? Maybe it feels like uneasiness or pressure. Perhaps it feels like sorrow guilt or regret. We all have situations, people, and concerns that we carry.

Do you ever feel uncomfortable when stepping into a room filled with people you don't know? Maybe you feel shy even when you do know everyone. A lot depends on your confidence and your personality. I know that for me, I can find myself feeling happy and outgoing or I can find myself feeling cautious and careful, depending on the situation. I know we are all different, but here are a few of my thoughts about decisions we can make to be hospitable, regardless of how we feel, simply because we are a people called to love others.

But I know a lot of people who say they know that God loves all people. They are quick to recite John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in his name shall not perish but have eternal life. And they are right.

But in the back of their minds, there’s a niggle of unbelief that He actually loves them. They’ve read all the scripture verses. They’ve heard all the sermons and have gone through many Bible studies. But somehow it just doesn’t feel true for them.

A few years ago, my husband and I decided to set aside our autumn Sunday afternoons to go hiking. After church and lunch, we drove to a variety of parks (within an hour’s radius of our city) and explored trails through wooded groves, savoring each unique setting, before driving back. This last fall we explored 10 different hiking areas and put in 30.1 miles. But more than that, we wandered in the middle of stately trees with their thick trunks, sturdy branches, and amazingly colorful leaves. We also experienced the hush of natural beauty and God’s loving presence.

I have often pondered why there was no room for a very pregnant lady to lie down after a long journey. Wouldn’t someone say, “Oh dear, come in, I’ll find a place for you!”

But no. There was no room.

And why was there no room?

Because the rooms were full.