Monthly Archives: April 2026

The Blessing of Smart Glasses

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Hello, and welcome to another blessing Sunday. Traveling with me on this path are

Abbie Johnson Taylor and

Lynda Lambert who shared the idea with me,


My brother, sister-in-law, and sister all came to visit this month. It was like a days-long family reunion, and what a good time it was! I referred to it in my last post when I talked about our trip to Wickenburg.

2 weeks ago sister Bev called and said she and her bestie Roz wanted to come over for a few minutes. We were going out to grandson Jaden’s birthday party in a couple hours, but, w/that proviso, I told them yes. Bev presented me w/a pair of Meta glasses. I had earlier shared w/her, brother Phil, and sister-in-law Nancy, my experience on Christmas where I used daughter Amanda’s meta glasses, and they told me about my daughter and grandkids standing by the Christmas tree in matching Christmas PJ’s. No one had told me that earlier, so it felt like having a little synthetic eyesight. It was fun and all, but I couldn’t justify spending the money. It was a cool luxury, but definitively not a need. Now, suddenly, I had my own.

They helped me get them set up. I’m sure I could’ve done it, but not nearly as fast. Then one of them gave me a newspaper, and I read it! Here’s the pic.

Me Reading Newspaper

Then we pulled an asparagus can out of the closet. Here’s a pic of me reading that.

Me reading the nutrition label on an asparagus can

On 2nd and 4th Wednesdays we have recycling days. Last week was 4th Wednesday, and we had 2 barrels of stuff. When I went out to get the barrels after the stuff had been collected, I could only find 1. Karl looked out the door, but he couldn’t see the other barrel either. I took my glasses, walked down the driveway a bit, looked slightly to my left, and asked Meta if she saw the barrel. Yes, she did, and w/her telling me approximately where it was, I was able to find it.

These are small, mundane things. For a completely blind person though, it was pretty earthshaking.

Some things haven’t worked as well. Finding Karl’s newspaper in the driveway and reading a small headphones manual are examples. I’ll continue to experiment to determine optimum use cases.

The glasses are a blessing, that’s a certainty. Even more so, though, is having a sister who cared enough to want to make my life a little easier. That’s the biggest blessing.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

I’m very fortunate to have lots of family who care about me, and, along w/God who is my rock and my salvation, these are my biggest blessings of all. I wish all of you to be likewise blessed.

The Blessing of Having Loved

Song at Midnight Posted on by

Hello, and welcome to another blessing Sunday. Traveling with me on this path are
Lynda Lambert who shared the idea with me, and
Abbie Johnson Taylor

Today is our eldest daughter Karley’s earthday birthday. She was the victim of a homicide in 2007. The killer was never apprehended. He wanders the face of the earth, and Karley’s life was snuffed out.

The loss of a child goes beyond words. It rips at the fabric of all we believe to be good and right. It violates the natural order that the parents should be the ones to die first. I once met a hospital chaplain who’d also lost a child and formed a support group called Sisters of Eve and Mary. Indeed all mothers who’ve mourned a child are members of this sad, but somehow binding, sisterhood. There’s a connection there that is strong beyond words.

Despite the many years, the pain of the loss is still very real. Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, it never goes away. Birthdays are reminders. Mother’s days, though happy occasions, are always tinged with great sadness, because there will be no call or card from her like she used to do when she was among us. And there’s always the strange aura Of what might or would have been that lingers every time I think about her. All moms I know who’ve gone through this say likewise.

And yet, God gave us the gift of her presence among us, and I will be forever grateful for that. I would be so much less of a person if she hadn’t been a part of my life. I hope in some small way the same might be true for her as well. And sometimes, there are those precious fleeting moments when I almost feel she’s here, dropping in to say hi. A puff of cigarette smoke, a familiar-sounding voice or laugh, the lady who looks so much like her it makes you catch your breath–a fleeting but awe-inspiring moment in time where the veil thins, worlds touch, and love is expressed.

It is true what Alfred Tennyson said. “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

1 Cor 13:
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.;

Happy earthday birthday, Karley. Say hi to Jesus for me. And know that though it brings me joy to know you’re with him, I still miss you mightily. But 2 weeks ago we celebrated His resurrection here, and that gives us hope that renews every morning.

The Blessings of Jellybeans and a small Steel Cross

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seal of Wickenburg, AZ

Hello, and welcome to another blessing Sunday. Traveling with me on this path are
Lynda Lambert who shared the idea with me, and

Abbie Johnson Taylor

I had family come to visit this week. My brother and sister-in-law from Boise and my sister from Mundelein descended upon AZ. My brother likes the wide open spaces & decided to stay in Wickenburg, a small town a little less than an hour’s drive from where I live. Friday morning, Apr. 10, my sister, Hubby, and I took our jeep and made the trip up. We all piled into Phil and Nancy’s Expedition and headed off to Vulture Mine Ghost Town. I personally did not encounter any disembodied visitors, and, so far as I know, neither did anyone else in our group.

At the ghost town, there was a blacksmith, working in period constume with the same tools that would’ve been used in the 1800’s, and likely are still used, albeit perhaps in slightly altered form, to this day.

He was making crosses. He wanted $40 for the larger 1, but the smaller versions were $25. That was rather expensive, especially given mounting medical bills, but they were hand-crafted, and the guy was working hard. I bought 1 for myself and 1 for the hubby, who did not accompany us on the tour of the shops because of physical impairment.

He loved it. He said it was the nicest thing I ever gave him. We’ve been married almost 40 years, and I’ve given him plenty of gifts during that time. This cross was definitively not the most expensive thing I’d ever gifted him. Nonetheless, I was glad he liked it.

The easter bunny, AKA my daughter, forgot to give him his jelly beans for Easter, so I ordered some. They came today, Apr. 11. He was equally glad to get those.

As I get older, I increasingly come to realize it’s not the expensive gifts that matter. It’s making memories. That person you love won’t be around forever, and there may come a time when all you’ll have is memories to sustain you. Of course there’ll be momentous occasions. But there will be smaller things to remember as well, like a small steel cross on a hot Arizona day, or a belated Easter gift of favorite old-fashioned jellybeans. Big occasions are just that–occasional. But small memories can be fashioned every single day. I’m making it my mission to do exactly that.

Christ Is Risen!

Song at Midnight Posted on by

Hello, and welcome to another blessing Sunday. Traveling with me on this path are
Abbie Johnson Taylor and

Lynda Lambert who shared the idea with me,

An empty burial cave. The shroud and linen wrappings are folded, 2 men in white stand just outside.

That first day of the week, a few women walked the streets of Jerusalem. There was a hint of gray in the sky. A rooster crowed. A dove cooed. A dog barked. The women bore a heavy burden. The spices and ointment they carried, although weighty, seemed light compared to the spiritual burden. The man they loved, the one whom they believed was the Messiah, the foretold one of the Torah who would liberate their kingdom from the Romans, had instead died on a criminal’s cross. Their job now was to perform one last service they couldn’t finish before the arrival of the Sabbath–the anointing of His body.

“How will we roll the stone away?” they asked each other as they trudged along. “It’ll be far too heavy for us to do it ourselves.”

Like so many of our worst fears, they found it had been taken care of. When they arrived, the tomb was empty. The burial clothes were folded neatly. Two men stood outside, dressed in dazzling white.

Matt 28:

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

The news still echos down the centuries. “Christ has risen! He has risen indeed!” And many gave their lives, sometimes in horrifying ways, because they would not deny the truth of that seemingly improbable sentence.

The resurrection is the central pillar of our Christian faith. Without it, Paul tells us exactly where we stand.

1 Cor 15:

14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

If there was no resurrection, we have believed a lie, we have told a lie, we are still in our sins, and death has the final word. May as well eat and drink for tomorrow we die. There is no hope.

If, however, the story is true, then every year we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, we rejoice in the living hope we have in Him. May you be blessed with the unspeakable joy His resurrection brings to the heart and soul of every believer, and may we tell it to others w/love and rejoicing. Christ has risen! He has risen indeed! Praise be to God!

When Hope Dies

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Heart on cross surrounded by darkness

It was 4 in the afternoon. It looked more like midnight, not just because of the physical darkness, which was so thick it felt like you could touch and taste it, but because of the spiritual darkness, the hopelessness, that engulfed many of the onlookers still standing near the cross. The man they had hoped would wrest the kingdom of Israel from the Romans and restore it to its rightful owners, now hung limp and bloody, nails fastening His hands and feet to the rough hewn wood. Their hopes were forever shattered. The next day would be darker still, for those nearby would wake up to realize that the rest of their lives would be exactly like this.

For them, there was no concept of a resurrection. There was just the shattered pieces of their hopes and dreams. Evil had triumphed.

2 devils talking to each other near a nail-pierced, empty cross. 1 says: "That was easy." The other says, "Then why do I feel like we've just been had?

Those who’d hoped in Jesus that day witnessed the two darkest days in history. But death didn’t triumph. The stone rolled away. The tomb opened. Jesus rose.

Meanwhile, the world held its collective breath. Would God the Father find His Son’s sacrifice acceptable, raise Him from death, and call the debt of sin paid?

On that good Friday, Sunday seemed an eternity away.

But on Sunday morning, the women returned from the tomb breathlessly. The stone had been rolled back. The tomb was desserted. All that remained were the burial wrappings. And while Jesus’s followers still didn’t understand fully what had taken place, something minuscule stirred in each of their spirits, the hope that somehow, against all odds, He was alive!

It’s hard living in the constant in-between of a world where, although evil has been defeated, it has not yet been entirely subdued. We wrestle daily w/the evil all around us, from minor annoyances to shattered hopes and dreams and lives. But we know there will come a shining day when all things will be brought under God’s authority, and all evil will be banished. Till then, we cling to the hope of the resurrection. And we agree w/those 2 devils. They had indeed been had.

What’s a Book Launch Without a Glitch?

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Book titled "His Crime Was Love" being launched into space.

Impossible, probably. In any event, here’s where things stand.

I tried to create redemption codes on Spotify, but it kept saying it couldn’t create them. I’ll try to get that set up, but it’s no great loss, since it’s available here and on Google Play.

If you enjoy the book, please share w/your friends before the promo expires. Please also consider leaving a review on Amazon or Google Play. May your Holy Week be blessed!