Kissing the Leper

My dark-haired daughter asked me this yesterday. My immediate response, with no thought was, "my daughter."

You see, my curly-haired daughter and her husband are moving 1000 miles away. On Friday. So, I'm giving up my daughter for Lent.

I am so happy for them: he has a new job that really taps into his talents and the pay is excellent. His parents re-located there about a year or so ago, and I know it's been hard on them as both their families are here. My daughter and her husband have an excellent financial plan to get rid of their debt over the next three years. It really is good.

But: they will be 1000 miles away.

My heart is a little broken. I know they don't understand my tears (yes, I bawled last night as I held her tight), and they probably won't understand them for another 25 years, when their baby loads up a car and pulls away.

150 years ago, this move probably would have been final. How many times in history did a mother say good-bye to a child and…

We all live with the scars we choose. (from Sugarland's "Take Me As I Am")

Folks with tattoos know that their skin tells a story. I don't have tattoos, but I have a lot of scars.

Some of my scars are ridiculously small: a mole removed, a cut from a knife. Then there are the others: my scar on my left arm from a fall from a horse. My scars from endometriosis: right down my belly. Now, scars on my back.

With my fair and tender skin, I form keloids, so my scars are really noticeable. I guess I could get all vain about them, but I chose them. Theses scars tell a story about me.

When Kimberly Hahn (apologist Scott Hahn's wife) had a c-section, she was quite upset about the scar. She told her husband that she thought that, in Heaven, her body would be made "whole" again, without the scars. He said no - you'll still have those scars. They are the story of your commitment to Christ. Just as the Resurrected Christ bore the wounds of His Crucifixion, our bodi…