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I remember sitting on the counter in our kitchen as a little girl watching applesauce ooze out of the little holes of our Victorio strainer's silver cylinder, sliding down the ramp into a waiting pan while the garbage parts--the seeds, peels, and stems--fell out into a separate bowl. I snuck quick tastes of warm, soursweet apple on my finger when no one was looking, and even sometimes when they were. Mum removed the pan of fresh sauce and scraped it…

As I enter the sixth month of my life away from the Netherlands, away from home, I find myself evaluating some of the changes that remain difficult, even though I have adjusted to them. Using the English language, the thing I struggled with most when I arrived, continues to be a challenge I enjoy. And though I wish people would not declare me crazy and honk at me every time I use my bike to shop on Grand Rapids' busy…

One of the joys of reading fiction--especially good fiction--is that in the midst of the narrative which keeps you turning pages, turning, turning to find out what happened next, you are suddenly stopped short by something you read, turned away from the narrative and into your own life. This can happen in a deep and profound way as the novel helps you see or understand something really significant about your own existence. But this sudden stop can also be caused…

The scrap of pita bread dissolves on my tongue, my saliva moistening it, breaking it down as I let it rest on my taste buds. The pastor looks into my eyes, saying, " The body of Christ, broken for you." I savor the floury weight of it, this piece of the body of Christ, as my stomach rumbles in anticipation. Feeling the softened particles spread throughout my mouth, I swallow slowly, letting the pieces travel to the back of my…

Here's how I imagine it. She knows he's there but she waits, time being of little consequence, after all. He died in the fall, when the leaves were drenched in reds and oranges, and to the north the sharp lines of shorn soybean rows looked like something cut into the land. She thinks he chose the right time of year because autumn is so beautiful, and there's relief--the corn finally out, although harvest is much easier now with those lumbering…

Although Jesus often used similes to describe the Kingdom of Heaven, he tended to use metaphors to talk about himself. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like this or that," Jesus said, "but let me tell you who I am." When Jesus declared himself the bread of life in the sixth chapter of John, he prefigured his death, his willingness to be broken and poured out in eternal remembrance of God's saving love. As God provided manna in the desert, so…