It was all quite sterile and white when he was born. Gowns, masks, gloves, lights, walls, shiny instruments. Poking, prodding, pronounced healthy. Bottles and rubber nipples, formula. No breast for you, kid. Slowly the soul sank. Awkward arms, held far from the body. Home, only two needs on the strict schedule – Diaper or feeding time Carefully regulated. Cry until then. You’re on your own, kid. Slowly the soul sank. Crib in a dark room, Sleeping bag tethered Can’t sit up Choking...

For five centuries the Kingdom of Kerma flourished in peace. The Nile faithfully overflowed its banks, leaving behind rich soil in which an abundance of crops thrived. The gods, if not gentle, were calm, satiated, apparently, with the daily sacrifices of meat and vegetables. There was little interaction with, or even knowledge of, empires beyond the sea to the east until a bedraggled herald was taken into custody. Emaciated, starving, sunburnt, he had collapsed on some sort of raft and...

The purpose of the Bible is to lead us to Jesus, not so we can go to heaven when we die, but so we can learn to be fully human and fully alive, connected with the Source of ultimate love, the ground of being.¹ The Bible is wisdom literature. Some of it is specifically in the wisdom genre, but all of it, whether historical, poetic, apocalyptic, prophetic, or personal communication, contains wisdom to apply in our lives. Some of us were mistakenly taught that simply flattening the text and...