When my friend Maritza took a job that required traveling to many different cities by herself, she often felt lonely. But over dinner one night, she leaned in and told me, “Jen, I prayed and asked God to send me His people.” She went on to …

The man was busy harvesting onions when we prayerfully approached him during the home visits we were conducting on our mission trip in Ecuador. In broken Spanish, I told him my friends and I’d like to briefly speak to him about the Bible. He paus…

Henry David Thoreau described a city as a place where many people are “lonesome together.” Those words have the ring of truth. In my youth, songs like “Mr. Lonely,” “Only the Lonely,” and “Eleanor Rigby” …

My neighbor Sam returned home one night without his car. “It was stolen,” he told his wife; then added: “I’m going to sleep, I’ll sort it out tomorrow.” His wife was flabbergasted. She couldn’t understand how S…

Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most celebrated musicians in history. Nearly two centuries after his death in 1827, his compositions are still among the most performed pieces. His talent has been widely heralded, and he’s often described as a …

The painting hung on the wall of a home for years, unnoticed and forgotten, until one day it fell. When it was taken to an art restorer for repairs, he discovered it was a long-lost Rembrandt masterpiece titled The Adoration of the Magi. It had been th…

From her hospital bed, Marie Coble lit up when she saw the delivery driver whose help had likely saved her life. She’d fallen in her driveway and hit her head, causing a brain bleed. Seeing her injury, Raheem Cooper helped her while calling param…

Hippocrates (ca. 460–375 bc) brought medicine out of the realm of the superstitious and into the light of testing and observation. But he didn’t lose sight of the patient’s humanity. “It is far more important to know what person…

When I led a ministry for moms of preschoolers, we hunted for an image to describe the unending demands that mothers experience. Changing diapers. Wiping noses. Picking up toys. It turns out the image was right in front of us: a disposable juice box, c…

In the midst of colorful creations made from old plastic bottles cut to resemble feathers and even lampshades, a tour guide at the New Orleans museum shared the thinking behind the use of such material. “For a city that’s had such hardship,…