Pool-time Visit by Birgit Bostelman from Grand Junction, Colorado I relaxed in our backyard under the shade of a big tree, while my five-year-old daughter, Paula, splashed and laughed in the pool. After a while, she hoisted herself up onto the edge for a quiet break. The sun shone bright overhead, our dog asleep in […]
Bouts of pneumonia and severe asthma had dogged our child since birth—but never like this. Sitting in the hospital waiting room, my husband and I didn’t know if he’d survive the night. We’d been at Grandma’s house when his lungs suddenly seized up. Epinephrine injections didn’t help. Now he was on a ventilator. The nurse […]
Most people who knew Bill Martin, a high school student in Bowie, Maryland, knew he was a Civil War buff. His interest started because of his father, Bill, Sr., who read all sorts of books on American history. Bill and his family visited battlefields across the country, including Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee. There he learned […]
The eight of us slipped quietly as we could through the rolling German countryside. We were the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Unit, the eyes and ears of the Army Infantry, one of the storied divisions that battled Hitler’s army across northern Europe. The fighting had grown ever more fierce in October 1944, as we crossed the […]
One day my friend Bob, who has multiple sclerosis, mentioned how Angus had helped him retrieve something he couldn’t reach from his wheelchair. I knew his wife, Rita, and his cat, Patches, but Angus? “Oh, Angus is what I’ve named my guardian angel,” he explained. I’d always been a skeptic but Bob was a pretty […]
Prayer can be a lonely business. Sure, we may pray with others in church or around the dinner table. We may ask friends to pray for us. But much of the time, we pray alone, right? Especially our most desperate prayers, those we might not share with others. But did you know that you never […]
“No, Chad,” I snapped, spotting my energetic little boy racing for the front door as it closed. “You can’t go with your sister.” Chad ran to the window and knocked on the glass. Shauna waved before she ran off down the street to play with her friends. At two and a half, Chad was a […]
My two grown daughters and I threw our stuff into the car for a quick weekend getaway to Florida. Just us girls. Autumn volunteered to drive. I climbed in front next to her, and Amber sat in back. We snapped on our seat belts, and we were off. The three of us sang to the […]
I’ve been a neurosurgeon for more than 20 years. Over that time, I’ve heard a lot about angels. Angels who have shown up in patients’ recovery rooms after a rough surgery, angels who come in dreams to comfort friends of a patient, and angels who visit mourning relatives. Angels who always seem extraordinarily real to […]
I leaned forward in my pilot’s seat, straining to see any sign of the skies clearing in the distance. But there was nothing. I’d been flying my Cessna single-engine plane through thick dark clouds for more than an hour, across the length of Pennsylvania. The stress of navigating in “pea soup” was definitely getting to […]
Scotch burned my throat on the way down. Finally. I’d waited hours for my favorite bar to open up and it wasn’t even noon yet. I couldn’t deny it anymore. My drinking was out of control and I was scared out of my mind. “How are things, Jim?” asked Betty the bartender. I shrugged and […]
Most people who knew Bill Martin, a high school student in Bowie, Maryland, knew he was a Civil War buff. His interest started because of his father, Bill, Sr., who read all sorts of books on American history. Bill and his family visited battlefields across the country, including Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee. There he learned […]
READ: For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope… Romans 8:24 REFLECT: I’d just received yet another wedding invitation in my mailbox—one more reminder that my own dreams of marriage still were simply dreams. I carried my bad mood over to the couch and turned on the TV. […]
Years had passed since I’d moved from North Carolina, but not a day went by that I didn’t think of my old mountain home. Especially during the month of December. There were no white Christmases here in Florida. Nothing could duplicate the scent of a fresh-cut evergreen from just over the hill. Mom’s fruitcake. Carolers […]
People often ask me to tell them my story. Maybe that’s because they see the difference between where I am now and where I used to be. Today I’m a professional artist, a father of four and a substance abuse counselor at a gang intervention program. Growing up? I was a gang member myself, a […]
In the November 2014 issue of Guideposts, I wrote about my husband’s serious hospitalization. So serious, the doctors weren’t sure he was going to make it. One thing I didn’t mention in that article was as I was sitting in the darkened ICU, praying for Mike to survive–and for me to survive–I heard the patter […]
By the time Christmas comes this year, both of my sons will have had their first child and I will be a granddad. Maybe that’s why I find myself thinking of that biblical father who appears in the crèche, often cast in the background, bearded, holding a staff. Joseph, who was given the challenge—and gift—of […]
I think of Zechariah as the guy who gets left out of most Christmas pageants. You always see the angels appearing to the shepherds, “a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God” with flapping of wings and shimmering halos. And there might be a scene of Gabriel appearing to a startled Mary to proclaim the […]
Mary was a teenager living in Nazareth when the unimaginable happened, the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced she was chosen by God to give birth to the Messiah. The book of Matthew tells us that when the angel appeared, Mary was already betrothed to a man named Joseph. Despite confusion, uncertainty and the […]
To some people, prayer is an esoteric exercise, not unlike the word “esoteric” itself. It is something mysterious and elusive, far removed from daily life. But that’s not at all the way prayer is pictured in the Bible. In fact, we can profit a lot from a little attention to the Bible’s metaphors for prayer: […]
Spanish moss whispered in the breeze as I sat cross-legged on our dock in Sarasota, Florida. I was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce and had come outside to the bayou to find some peace of mind. I didn’t know what would come next for me. The ongoing uncertainty had sapped any hope that […]
Lights from the Christmas tree still winked from my living room. I couldn’t bring myself to take down the decorations. The holiday was over, but it hadn’t felt like Christmas at all. Not without Kamryn, I thought. The telephone rang, interrupting my thoughts. It was my daughter, Kathleen. She had to take my granddaughter to […]
God can make the impossible possible. When God told 100-year-old Abraham that he and his 90-year-old wife Sarah would have a child, Abraham dropped to the ground in unbelieving laughter at such a ridiculous idea, and Sarah joined him in the laughter (Genesis 17:15-17; 18:10-12). But it happened. When an angel told the young Virgin Mary […]
Nobody was on the beach before dawn in Brigantine, New Jersey. The shore was completely desolate. Maybe that’s what had drawn me. My life was just as desolate. Six months earlier, in June, I’d been on my boat, the Furthermore, trying to make good time from Florida to New York when a sudden storm had […]
I’ve reported on countless stories of angels. It’s important to me that each of these stories is checked out as thoroughly as possible. I like to talk to the witness directly, and if there’s corroboration, such as newspaper clips or onlookers or medical reports, I’ll use them as well. But there are moments when I’m […]
Spring was never going to come. That’s what it felt like when I looked out the window of my new house at another gray and gloomy morning. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen the sun. Rain pattered the windows as I made breakfast. My children finished eating and went back upstairs. I grabbed […]
They call it the most magical place on earth. What better vacation spot for us to visit than Disney World that summer of 1985? My husband and I had only been married a few months, but all signs pointed to a long and happy future for our brand-new blended family. Life felt more settled already, […]
Hours before dawn, I awoke to a magical sound: the crunching metallic clatter of rolling tires outfitted with snow chains. It’s snowing! I thought. I leaped out of bed and ran to the window. Beneath the glow of the streetlamp, our road and yard in Raleigh, North Carolina, were blanketed with pristine white snow. School […]
On January 6, 2020, as always, I carefully lifted the Nativity angel from the nail at the peak of the wooden stable and held her in my hands. Just as my parents and grandparents had done before me, I waited for this day to take down the crèche. Today was the feast of the Three […]
Bovine Angel Late in the day at my family’s cattle ranch, I noticed something strange on my way through the field. One of the newborn calves had a white spot on her side. It shone like a beacon. That’s strange, I thought, making a beeline for her. Almost all of our cows were solid red […]
Everything seemed to change for me when I entered high school. There were 790 people in my freshman class alone, and I never saw a single person I knew from middle school. At home I was just as lonely. My older brother was a senior, consumed with future decisions about college or military life. My […]
I was 45 before I began to forgive Mama. Any time I’d go back to Oklahoma for a visit, folks would ask, “Do you see your mother?” Really they were asking, “Have you forgiven your mother?” My answer was always, “Of course. I see her. I forgave Mama years ago.” But the minute the words […]
