Tim Keller in The Washington Times

The Washington Times article recognizes what a distinct, reasonable, civil and disarming voice Keller's is, especially today where it seems it's impossible to engage with differing convictions without belittling and disdaining.

Clearly there is a need for a voice like his. Tim Keller's book, The Reason For God, hit the NYT Bestseller list one month after it was published.

Jago canvas of the Storybook Bible

Jago (drum roll please), the fabulous illustrator of the run away bestseller, The Jesus Storybook Bible, has figured out how to get prints of his illustrations (that are done on computer but don't look like it because he uses an ultra top secret technique*) printed onto canvas so that now they look like oil paintings. Yes, he has.

AND (another drum roll please) some very clever people have bought one: from left to right, it's Lily Grace (3 1/2), Noah (7), Lindsey (5 1/2), Ben and Mary Kate—the brilliant and proud owners of Jago's inaugural transatlantic canvas from the book! (The illustration is from The Big Picnic showing Jesus and the little boy.)

To order a print or find out more, click here.

(* As he puts it: "I work almost entirely digitally, using a secret blend of the finest textures, papers and digital paints. I could tell you how I make each picture, but then I'd have to kill you." )

victim and his mugger

"If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money.”— Julio Diaz, speaking with the teenager who robbed him

An incredible story that reminds you why you love New York.

titles and front porches

"The title to a work of writing is like a house's front porch.... It should invite you to come on in." 

Angela Giles Klocke

neurotics and writers

"When disaster causes the familiar ground to shudder beneath the feet of a child, a neurotic is sometimes born, or a writer, and often both." — Time Magazine

You may now be wondering about this picture and just what it has to do with the quote. I thought it might illustrate the ground shuddering. It's an illustration from the 14th century of Tacuminum Sanitatis (a medieval handbook on wellness) illustrating wind (no, I don't think that type of wind--note: trees being blown violently about, not that that proves a single thing). Although now I look at the title of the book again, I'm wondering whether I have indeed posted a blog with an illustration of flatulence...

Moving swiftly on.

Anyway. The reason I like this quote is because it reminds me that even when everything seems to have gone wrong, behind the scenes, underneath everything that is happening, that "deeper magic" (C S Lewis) is working. Transforming a place of pain into one where hope can grow. And writers can be born.

(BTW: I just checked and the wind here has to do with the heart. So that's all right then.)

the right kind of pride

“Pride is faith in the idea that God had when he made us. A proud man is conscious of the idea, and aspires to realize it. He does not strive towards happiness, or comfort, which may be irrelevant to God’s idea of him. His success is the idea of God, successfully carried through, and he is in love with his destiny.” Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen, 1885-1962)

What was God’s idea when he made you? And are you in love with your destiny? (Looking at her photo, I rather think Karen Blixen was with hers, don't you?)

Wisdom

"Wisdom begins in wonder"—Socrates.
And this fish makes my heart hurt.

He is risen!

Peter and John Running to the Tomb— Eugène Burnand (1850 – 1921), Musée d'Orsay, Paris