Today I said goodbye to my daughter and her husband who were heading back to California after visiting us in Dallas for a week. Each time we say goodbye I have a fresh experience of the cost of living so far away. I feel the pain of the separation.

I long to have the luxury of Friday night dinners, of helping my daughter shop for accessories for her new home, for an impromptu barbeque on a Sunday afternoon, or being available to help to relieve the strain when life pinches them too tight. I miss the day to day opportunities to tangibly participate.

What I desire is the full opportunity for relationship afforded by close proximity that is now hindered by distance. I can hardly imagine how much more difficult it will become when a grandchild or two comes into the world!

As I was pondering and processing my own reality in the aftermath of their departure, a thought flitted through my mind. I wondered if this is a glimpse of how God feels about his relationship with his children. Is he grieved by the distance created, not by his lack of presence, but...

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Sometimes I need to be careful about what I preach. Recently I have been recording the podcasts for the curriculum that we are developing at ECSW. It has been several years since I have engaged in regular Bible teaching. It took me a few weeks to remember that every time I teach, God seems to require that the material go through me before it goes out from me.

I realize that this is the way it should be. But it was disconcerting to hear my own words come back to me in a podcast that I recorded on the character of God in Genesis chapter one. Reflecting on God’s creativity, generosity and unfailing delight in the “good”...

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