“You ask me what I want. You ask me what I need. It’s nothing you can buy, My heart’s not ruled by greed. I don’t love a diamond. Diamonds you see through. I want you to hold me, I want …
All I Want for Christmas is You, Baby
Mariah Carey changed my life. Well, Mariah Carey’s timeless classic, All I want for Christmas is You, changed my life. It was Christmas time when my wife and I decided we wanted to start having kids. I’m a fair-skinned Scotch …
The Gift of Courage
I have lost a parent to cancer, faced a difficult diagnosis for a child, and have lived a decade and a half in a foreign country. Within those storylines, there have been plenty of opportunities to demonstrate courage (or not). …
The Gift of Good Grief
“Pain removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.” –C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain. For me, the Christmas season always stirs up a sense of “good grief.” A couple of …
The Gift of Ransom
“O come, O come Emmanuel. And ransom captive Israel.” It was December 20th, 2010. I had braced myself for the day. A routine I had come to dread. I had a doctor’s appointment at two o’clock for my monthly regimen …
The Gift that Wasn’t … but Really Was
My most memorable Christmas came with a lesson I will never forget. It was one I would refer to for the rest of my life that would provide the foundation for my every pursuit. It all began when, as a …
Christmas Morning
Original artwork and commentary by Ryan King
My Single-Serving Friend
I was boarding a plane. The flight was full. I was one of those in the last group to be called to board. I took one of the available middle seats and nodded politely with a half smile to the …
The Gift of Giving: An Inherited Generosity
It was dark but I could see there was a truck coming down our long driveway off South Road. In the back was something yellow, strapped down to both sides of the truck bed. I saw this unfold from my …
Getting the Perfect Gift
The key to a good gift is that it takes into account who the person is and what his or her desires are. I learned this by being on the receiving end of gift giving. It was a painful lesson …