Faith & Family

MarkTheHerald.com ✦ The Herald Dispatch ✦ I want to tell you about the Christmas I almost ruined by trying too hard. It was a few years into having four kids, which means it was the season when I was theoretically most experienced at Christmas parenting and practically most in danger of overcomplicating it. I had ideas. I had a list. I had ambitious plans for traditions and experiences and meaningful moments that would be remembered forever. By December 20th, I was exhaus

MarkTheHerald.com ✦ The Herald Dispatch ✦ I know what you're thinking. It's June. The Christmas music isn't even in the stores yet. The last thing you want to do is think about December. And you're right — mostly. I'm not here to suggest you start shopping or decorating or planning your Christmas Eve menu. That would be absurd, and I have more respect for your summer than that. But here's something I've observed in years of ministry and family life: the families who have

MarkTheHerald.com ✦ The Herald Dispatch ✦ Luke 2:19 is one of the shortest and most quietly devastating verses in the entire Christmas narrative. The shepherds have just left. They arrived frantic with wonder, spilling over with an account of angels and heavenly armies and a message about a baby who is the Savior of the world. They shared everything they'd seen and heard. And then they left, going back to their flocks and their night shifts and their ordinary lives, glori

MarkTheHerald.com ✦ The Herald Dispatch ✦ Every year the calendar separates Easter and Christmas by about eight months, and in the cultural imagination they end up feeling like two entirely different holidays with two entirely different emotional registers. Christmas is warm and anticipatory and domestic — candles and carols and the smell of something baking. Easter is solemn and triumphant and outdoor — lilies and sunrise services and empty tombs. And yet. I've been thin