Dear Subscribers and Friends, It is with a heavy heart that I want to let you know about the loss of The Redbud Post’s editor-in-chief, JoHannah Reardon, on February 4, 2021, after an 18-month battle with cancer. JoHannah was a longtime Redbud Writers Guild member and had been the editor-in-chief of The Redbud Post since…
I paused and looked out over the small crowd of children sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Sunday school room, waiting for their response. I played the role of narrator in a short play about the book of Esther, and as I’d just said the name “Haman,” I was waiting for the hisses and…
The Old Testament enthralls me: the poetry, the heat and sand, the incomprehensible language, the culture and mystery (Who was Cain’s wife? What are the Nephilim? What about Pangea and the dinosaurs?). But the characters I am supposed to identify most closely with—the Hannahs and Rebeccas and Rachels and Sarahs—I don’t. While I have known…
“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.” The sun was peeking over the edge of the mountain ridge when the rumblings started. Jael looked up from the fire she was kindling to bake the day’s bread. In the fringes of pink that touched the grey…
The Bible tells us that Jesus was countercultural. His Jewish upbringing and the mores of his day tell us that he lived in a world with many boundaries between races, religions, and also gender. The life of women in biblical times was oppressive. In this patriarchal society, they were considered inferior and under the authority…
Wedding Ceremonies usually happen in a church or with a minister. The celebratory union of two lives is blessed by God, sealed by vows, and witnessed by family and friends. In contrast, divorces happen in a courtroom with a judge. There is no blessing, a gavel seals, and few witnesses attend. Society’s exaltation of love…
Welcoming marginalized people is often seen as a challenging task beyond the resources of the ordinary congregation. But the smallest congregations often do an outstanding job of including the marginalized as part of the family of God. It’s six months since John died, and his colorfully decorated tambourine still hangs on the pew where he…
Once upon a time, there was a woman whose name was Abigail. Abigail not only was beautiful, but also very wise. Abigail was the apple of her parents’ eyes. They delighted to watch her grow in grace and knowledge, and gain the favor of those who knew her. Naturally, when it came time to get…
The Bible, like life, is rife with stories of gender-based violence. Abuse. Enslavement. Rape. Murder. Torture. Kidnappings. Forced marriages. Exploitation. It is there, in all its horrifying depravity, and the stories hint at realities that are even worse. Realities that untold numbers of women around the world are all too familiar with. These texts become…
The first time I heard the term helpmeet was during a career development conversation with the vice-president of my department at my corporate job. After college, my husband and I had worked hard to establish careers and our family. My performance was stellar, and I was good at my job. I was expressing to my…
It was just a purple paper cone filled with tissue paper. The tissue was yellow and orange, the color of fire. The cone glistened with foil stars that coiled around its body. It was simply a handmade paper torch, but it had meaning. The torch commemorated fifty years of ordaining women in my denomination. I…
I encountered Ecclesiastes long before I knew much about God. My honors English teacher forced our roomful of ambitious high school juniors to dig through the King James text to figure out what the word vanity means. “Vanity of vanities … all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2, KJV). Meaningless was among the synonyms our class came…
I love the story my mom tells of my first dance recital. Of course, as memories go, it is augmented by the photos: pre-Instagram squares of naturally occurring haze. I am onstage for the tap show in a fringed pink satin leotard with about 20 other preschoolers. Because of my height, I am in the…
Not long ago, I found myself walking with a small team of missionaries along the rubble-filled streets of Mathare, the second largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, with a population of more than half-million people. We stepped over ditches filled with raw sewage and held hands as we walked to the homes of students who attend…