In many major ports, huge ships don’t just glide in on their own. They may have strong engines, advanced navigation, and experienced crews—but when they get close to shore, the waters change. Channels narrow. Currents shift. Sandbars move. Visibility can drop. So a harbor pilot comes out in a small boat, climbs the ladder, steps […]

The wedding of Cana is one of those stories we think we know so well that we almost stop listening for anything new. Wedding. Wine runs out. Jesus turns water into wine. Familiar. But when we slow down, it’s like this passage opens up a hidden garden. There are so many beautiful details tucked inside […]

Picture a Nativity scene in your mind. Our eyes instinctively start searching: the Child, St. Mary, maybe Joseph, angels, shepherds, wise men. We scan the scene like a checklist, as if the goal is to confirm details and “get it right.” But Armenian Nativity art keeps forcing our attention to something we usually treat as […]

Psychologist Daniel Goleman popularized a phrase for what can happen under pressure: “amygdala hijack.” The amygdala is the brain’s alarm system. When it senses threat, it can flood us with stress chemicals before we’ve even had time to think clearly. Our vision narrows. We get reactive. We move fast, not wisely. We say things like, […]

We all love the idea of a reset button. Your phone freezes, an app won’t load, everything feels stuck. So we do what we always do: close it, restart it, hope it comes back clean. Sometimes it works. The screen clears, the lag disappears, and it feels like we got a fresh start for free. […]

In ancient Rome, a triumph was the ultimate parade for a general, a commander returning to homeland with a victory. The city packed the streets with thousands. People shouted his name. Soldiers marched, banners flew as far as the eye could see. Spoils were carried through town. He rode high in a chariot, crowned, dressed […]

Many of us genuinely desire the life God promises—joy, depth, peace, belonging. But we often want those gifts without letting God rearrange anything in our schedules, priorities, or habits. We want the feast without changing our plans. In the 1400s, the city of Florence set out to complete the massive dome of its cathedral. Everyone […]

Many families have a wall calendar or shared app packed with color-coded events. Practices, meetings, school projects, appointments, birthdays, trips. Some squares are so full you can barely read what’s written. But if we scroll or scan a little slower, we might notice what’s often missing: moments intentionally set aside for being with God, for […]

We live in a world where we put our names on everything. We sign our emails, we add our watermark to photos, we look for our name on plaques, buildings, donor lists. And yet one of the greatest composers in history, Johann Sebastian Bach, did something very different. At the end of many of his […]