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Pilgrims Together

Scott Hoezee Because I recently traveled to Africa for the first time, I am keenly aware that when going to a place that is completely new, it is vital to have an experienced guide. When it comes to navigating global Christianity, I am in territory that is at least somewhat unfamiliar to me. But no worries: Wesley Granberg-Michaelson knows the terrain from Times Square to Timbuktu and can serve as a more-than-knowledgeable exploration leader. In his new book, Granberg-Michaelson spans…
January 1, 2014
Poetry

Counter Narrative

by Rose Postma In the seven days it took Utnapishtim's hired craftsmen to build his reed-stitched boat, Noah must have wandered over late at night to check his competition out: examining mortise and tenon, measuring the span of the joists, wishing he had more help than three elderly sons. Did sweat salt Utnapishtim's eyes as he helped his men ache the craft over a road of poles, down to the still-smooth Euphrates, or was it just the first drops of…
Rose Postma
January 1, 2014
Poetry

Creation as an Almond Tree in Abraham Kuyper’s Orchard

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014: POETRY by Rose Postma The leaves, which are not leaves, are silverfish, which are not fish at all but wingless insects: translucent as uterine vellum, antennae always craving flight, exodus. Some sloughed by wind as finger nail clippings or dried skin cells to the floor, destined for the garbage can. The remnant is clinging to the gray-bark trunk, to the branches and the peach tree suckers growing below the grafting line, not clinging, grasping. Held, bound, always feeling…
Rose Postma
January 1, 2014
Essays

Boasting: It is Included

Matthew S. Vos I'm an accomplished loser. I really am. I don't offer this bit of self-deprecation to vaunt my humility right before revealing a long list of breathtaking accomplishments. In truth, I've won only three things during my forty-four years on God's good earth. When I was thirteen, I won Cadet of the Year for my work accumulating merit badges in a scout-like group in our Christian Reformed Church. However, that year they split the award between two of…
Matthew S. Vos
January 1, 2014
Inside Out

Numbering Our Days

Daniel Meeter The lifespan of a dog is about 4,400 days. A mouse gets six hundred. Human beings get 25,560 days, or by reason of strength, 29,211. Tortoises get 40,000, and sequoias get 365,000 and more. Why aren't we content with our number? Why do we, of all creatures, expect to live forever? The biblical Hebrews did not believe in human immortality. There is not one word in the Torah about life after death, which is remarkable when you consider…
Daniel Meeter
January 1, 2014
Fiction

Where the Tree Falls

James Calvin Schaap Our friend Lawrence told us he thought it might be good for our souls and there would be a death, a deliverance — some friend of his daughter-in-law somewhere out on the reservation. Lawrence doesn't ask much; never did. So a couple of us left the cemetery and went with. His daughter-in-law, Magenta, is no longer a young woman. Lawrence himself is a decorated World War I vet, so his son (had he lived) and his son's…
January 1, 2014