In this Issue — May-June, 2012
Cover Art
Jesus Among the Teachers - Vie de Jesus Mafa
This month’s cover reminds me of the way visual art influences our understanding of scripture. Rereading Luke 2:41-51, I find a story sparse on detail. However, an abundance of stained-glass detail in a panel in my home church planted in me a story of the boy Jesus deciding that verbal sparring with the teachers of Israel was more important than joining his parents for the return trip to Nazareth. The scene that I remember shows Jesus with his chin raised, almost smug in his supernatural awareness. Richly clad men pack into the Temple, almost as if day-to-day activity has ceased ...read more
From the Editor
Enabled by the Spirit When we read the Pentecost story, we’re struck by its power but also by its mystery: the winds, the tongues of fire, the multitude of languages. How could they all be understood? Last year, we began gathering our Upper Room ministry staff and volunteer editors around the globe into regional “family reunions.” The first event, in Sao Paolo, Brazil, drew together our Upper Room and Emmaus/Chrysalis leadership from the Caribbean and Latin America. For four days, 32 of us assembled in a retreat center for fellowship, learning, sharing, and worship in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. At times we had translators, ...read more
Prayer Workshop
A New Family The Myers family cemetery’s gate bears the words “Established in 1795.” For over two centuries, the Myerses have lived and died in eastern Tennessee. When I asked a local if members of this family were still around, I got an immediate and resounding yes. As one person put it, “The hills around here are thick with them.” My mother’s family has similar roots in eastern Kentucky. In the early 1700s, my ten-greats-grandfather George Gideon Ison settled in Letcher County. As with the Myerses in Tennessee, the hills of Kentucky are still “thick with” my relatives. Families like these have identities ...read more
