bad habits
Our young daughter has always preferred sleeping flat on her stomach and without a pillow. But last winter she developed a sinus condition, and the only way she could stop coughing during the night was if she placed her head on a pillow and slept on her side. Six years of lying flat on her tummy without a pillow had become a habit, however, and she would stay in that raised position for only a few moments before wriggling down and sleeping on her stomach.
rules and grace
Students in a Christian elementary school lined up at the lunch table to get their food. At the head of the table was a pile of apples. A teacher made the following note and posted it on the apple tray: “Take only ONE. God is watching.” At the end of the table, next to a large tray of chocolate chip cookies, a clever student placed this note, “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”
ghost car
In 1939, General Motors created a “ghost car”—a transparent vehicle with a body made of Plexiglas. The see-through outer shell of the Pontiac Deluxe Six revealed a custom chrome-plated dashboard, a spare tire lodged in the trunk, and even the door-locking mechanisms. The “ghost car” debuted at the New York World’s Fair and then traveled to various dealerships before finding a semi-permanent parking spot inside the Smithsonian Institute. In 2011, it sold at an auction for $308,000.
gracious and salty
During a press conference in New York City for Clint Eastwood’s new movie Hereafter, the journalists were clearly smitten with him. When a Brazilian journalist apologized for his poor command of English and a “silly question,” Eastwood sat forward in his chair and told the writer, “No question is silly.”
After the event, a journalist reported, “One gets the feeling…
the holy riddler
Mighty, majestic, awesome. Gracious, loving, kind. Such descriptors for God are common, and rightly so. But how many of us would add “playful” to the list? How many of us think of God as the One who toys with us—the holy riddler?
“Son of man,” God commands Ezekiel, “give this riddle, and tell this story to the people of Israel”…
