Via Maris

Love One December 2024 1 John 3:1 ● Deuteronomy 5:7-10 A screeching ak-ak-ak sounded from the rocks. I looked up. Seagull, lots of wingflaps. Must have said something the other ones didn’t like. “Depression can get like that,” I said. “It can just grab you by the...

Cheeseburger Psalm October 2024Ephesians 3:16-19 We were having a late lunch at Phyllis’s coffee shop, a cheery place done up with yellow and white chintz tablecloths and framed covers from the Saturday Evening Post, the ones by Norman Rockwell of folks in diners and...

Oat and Oak October 2024 Matthew 21:16 Y’know what I think, Grampa?” Bailey squiggled her 10-year-old self onto the recliner, snuggled up next to her grandfather. She was warm and fragrant from playing. Her grandfather said, “Bailey, you smell like the outdoors.” The...

Convocation of Flies Isaiah 14:12-27  1 Peter 5:8  James 4:7  Ephesians 4:27 September 2024 Shielded within a sphere of light, tall, broad of shoulder, sun-bright in white robes, Mikha’el and Gavri’el watched the convocation below. A foul taste came to Mikha’el’s...

July 2024 Matthew 28:1-4 Dust filtered into the darkened tomb, silently erasing the signs of mourning. The cold body lay on the bier, lovingly draped in a linen burial shroud. Outside, Roman legionnaires, eyes juddering in the dawnlight, await this, the third day....

Barbershop DuetJune 20241 Peter 3:15 Squinting against the rain, his thoughts anywhere but where he was going, Roger Berlingson caught the red and white candycane out of the corner of his eye just in time to avoid whacking it with his head. Good thing it was there. If...

Matthew 5.38-39  Romans 1:17-19 Six o’clock Saturday morning, T. Tom awoke just as he did every Saturday morning. He was ten years of age and everyone called him T. Tom, his dad, his grandparents, aunts and uncles, even his friends. Everyone except mother, Maggie...

Luke 2 The house was spare, but clean and warm, and as I entered, she welcomed me with grace. Her loving smile spoke the words of her heart. Mary beckoned me to a table, one of rough-hewn edge and finely finished top. Strong and sturdy, it was a table of substance and...

White Hat Matthew 28:19-20   As if the whap-whap of the windshield wipers wasn’t enough to drive him nuts, the squint-eyed headlights that made short, wrinkled stabs into the night just made it worse. “Lord,” he said, “gimme a break. Been driving for six hours....

Luke 4:1-13 . Philippians 2:6-8 . Hebrews 2:17 Walking south toward Jericho from the Jordan, Jesus left the road well before reaching the city. Turning northwest, he followed the broad rift into the barren wadis and hills of Arabah. As he turned, he smiled slightly at...