Category: Stories

The Arbor

Behind an apartment at the edge of town stands an arbor. Six feet high, it was designed and built to support climbing plants, and it has been put to good use. The residents have planted climbing roses at the base of the arbor posts, and then added trellises to help the roses climb to the top. Beneath the arbor are shrubs, flowering bushes, and statuary. Hanging from the rungs at the top are bird-feeders. The arbor is beautiful to see, and undoubtedly a source of great pleasure to its owners. Nearby sits a second arbor. Almost identical to the first,...

Your Job is to Love

My kitchen table was covered with papers. It was the end of the month and I was trying to get all of my paperwork done and taken to the office on time. I sat down in a chair, picked up my pen, and started writing on the first page. Just then a flash of motion caught my eye. I looked out my window and saw my neighbors’ white beagle standing on my back porch. She had gotten free from her yard and was having fun running loose. Knowing my neighbors were at work I looked at my paperwork, sighed, and...

God Saying “I Love You”

Each of us in this life wants more than anything to be loved. We work for love. We strive for love. We make fools out of ourselves for love. We long to feel that love warming our hearts and souls. We strain our ears each day for just a whisper of those three glorious words: “I love you.” What most of us don’t realize, however, is just how much God loves us. God is showing us and telling us how much He loves us everyday. When you see the sun rising over the mountains, feel the cool breeze kissing your...

The Image of the Cross

Nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains of North America stands a rugged peak. For nine months each year it lies robed in snow, indistinguishable from a dozen others surrounding it. But as summer arrives and the air warms, the mountain slowly sheds its blanket of white, revealing a massive emblem. High above the neighboring valleys, an 1100 foot vertical gouge bisects a 400 foot horizontal groove, forming an almost perfect image of the cross of Christ. This sight is so impressive that famous American artist Thomas Moran visited the mountain to paint it in 1875. The peak is aptly named...

The Nail

As the story goes, they built a new church building and people came from far and wide to see it. They admired its beauty! Up on the roof, a little nail heard the people praising everything about the lovely structure-except the nail! No one even knew he was there, and he became angry and jealous. “If I am that insignificant, nobody will miss me if I quit!” So the nail then released its hold, slid down the roof, and fell in the mud. That night it rained and rained. Soon, the shingle that had no nail blew away, and the...