As I was driving my girls to school early one morning, we noticed how beautiful the sky was. In the time since we had left our home in darkness, sunlight had been creeping over the horizon, displaying varying shades of glorious hues on a canvas of clouds. I commented on how beautiful it is to watch the sun rise, and my 8-year-old daughter corrected me: “Mom, don’t you know the sun isn’t really rising? The sun isn’t moving at all!” She was correct. Indeed, the sun wasn’t moving at all. We talked about how strange it was to think about the fact that we were at that very moment spinning…

January has always been my least favorite month. After several weeks of excitement and anticipation for the holidays, suddenly it is all over. The tree needs to be taken down. The decorations need to be packed up and put away. Life resumes the normal day-to-day routines. Winter no longer feels festive — it just feels cold and dreary and long. The widely spread messages of love and goodwill that are so abundant during the holiday season seem to disappear, forgotten, until Thanksgiving comes around again. In addition to the after-Christmas letdown, January is also a time that holds particularly painful memories for me, which has resulted in each New Year…

The Gospel of Luke shares an intriguing story in Chapter 13:10-17. For the last recorded time in his ministry, Jesus teaches in the synagogue. Among the listeners is a woman. In that day only men’s presence “counted” for quorums, so there may not have been many women in attendance. This woman is unique not just because she’s in the minority, but because she suffers from an ailment that has curved her spine so severely that for the last 18 years she hasn’t been able to stand up straight “at all.” She constantly faces the ground, the dirt, the trash and debris. She can’t look people in the eye. Imagine how…