Several years ago I was packing my bags for an international flight, a trip that would take me to Guatemala, and I felt I needed to write Cindy and the girls a letter. Three letters, one each to be read in case something fatal happened to me.

This weekend was a difficult one for our family. I won’t go into the details now or here. Suffice it to say that we have incurred a great loss. But it’s times like these that become opportunities for us to grow individually and together as a family.

Last summer I wrote about a computer game my dad and I used to play called Hero’s Quest. There was another game we used to play, simply called Pirates—ironic, considering my dad had pirated the game from a coworker. We wasted many hours playing that game, and I’m afraid I may just waste some more. I purchased the new app for five bucks and immediately I was twelve again.

I was at a mall recently. I don’t usually like going to malls, unless they have bookstores. Aside from books and cell phone kiosks, most malls merely comprise boutique after endless boutique of whatever kind of fig leaves you could possibly want. One store I noticed in particular was Forever 21. … Would I want to be 21 again? Is that when I’d like for time to have stopped?

After hiding her baby for three months, in direct opposition to Pharaoh’s edict to kill all newborn boys, she placed Moses in a waterproofed basket into the Nile. … Perhaps you picked up on the similarity between Jochebed’s basket and another homemade, waterproof vessel. The Hebrew word for the basket (tēb̠āh) is the same as the word for Noah’s ark. Where one was huge and housed not merely Noah and his family but a menagerie of coupled animals, the other was small and could contain only a baby.

A couple weeks ago, my brother asked if I’d write something for the memorial service for his daughter’s baby, who died in her mother’s womb a few days after her due date. He’d asked for a Scripture verse or something for the service program. I didn’t know where to begin, and I knew it would be terribly difficult to write. … Here is what I wrote.

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m a huge fan of Seinfeld. One of the funniest episodes is from an earlier season when Jerry, George, and Elaine spend the entire show waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant. As their wait drags on, they keep asking the host how long until they’ll be seated. “Oh, five, ten minutes” is his reply every time.

These weren’t innocent people but the same ones who derided and even killed the prophets God sent to win them back. Their hearts were full of infidelity, and they laughed at God in their sin.

I’ve been thinking about last Wednesday’s post and how I criticized the Pharisees for their adherence to the Law, or at least their dependence on it for their salvation. I considered the woman and her “many sins,” which we infer involved sexual sin. So, what does the Law say about sexual immorality? Here’s just a sampling of what the Torah says (specifically Deuteronomy 22).

You’re probably familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Separately, three people came upon a man who’d been mugged. One was a priest, another a Levite, and the last a Samaritan, who would have been hated by the Jews. Typically, we walk away from the story thinking we should be more compassionate toward others, especially those we normally wouldn’t like. But, as there usually is, there’s more to the story.