Does Christmas make you nostalgic? If so, you’re far from alone. This time of year, many of us long, almost painfully, for the traditions we grew up with. My husband and I got married days before Christmas. It came as a rude surprise to discover he expected a star atop the tree, and my family…
At Christmas, I’m always drawn to the story of Mary. Imagine being fourteen or fifteen, the age most historians think Mary was, betrothed to a man arranged by your parents, and suddenly an angelic being appears in front of you. Said angel tells you are going to be a mother! What would you do? I’d…
And above all these things put on love, Which binds everything together In perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14 ESV Hanging on our bedroom wall is our advent calendar. Tucked in pockets are beautiful words of God’s love. The first folded paper has a quote from Robert Browning. “How do I love thee? Let me count the…
You don’t need me to tell you it’s been a year. Fear, anxiety, uncertainty, illness, controversy, division, and financial hardship have shaped the last few months. Now that the Advent season is upon us, it can be difficult to shift our focus from everything that is going on in the world to the celebration and…
Today marks the 79th anniversary of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that propelled our nation into history’s bloodiest war. Looking back, I have to say stories from WWII have captivated me from an early age—probably from the day I first picked up The Diary of Anne Frank in school. I also remember…
As the year 2020 nears its end, many of us sigh in relief. The past several months have been filled with one crisis after another, from COVID-19, to congressional antics, to claims of election fraud. We, as a nation, are anxious for the curtain to fall on this chapter of our history. Lock the door.…
The specter of death walked the land of Israel. After three years without rain, streams ran dry and wells became mud. Crops failed and food supplies dwindled. The effects of the drought gripped nearly everyone, from the poorest laborer to the king and queen in their palace. But in Zarephath, a Canaanite city far away,…
The yeasty scent of bread fresh from the oven fills my daughter’s kitchen. It turns my thoughts back to 2012 when my granddaughter Anneliese and I baked biscuits but had to make sour milk with vinegar. We watched bubbles rise and expand, and marveled as they created foam on the surface of the liquid. Five-year-old…
It can be incredibly easy for us as humans to think we know exactly what God’s plans are for our lives. But what do we do when the plans we were so sure were God’s don’t come to fruition? I recently contributed a story to the Christmas anthology, A Star Will Rise. The theme of…
[Melanie Campbell] Book Baby Side Effects
Authors often refer to their novels as a “Book Baby.” The term is fitting. A completed novel and a baby share many of the same qualities. Like children, each one is different. And like pregnancy, each book’s journey to completion has its own unique story. Mother’s often talk about how with one pregnancy they were…
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