Torn and confused, lonely and enraged, I greet the new day with suspicion. Spirit of Life, show me the gate to healing. May I find in my hands the tools to craft a way through the pain. When even those tools fail me, may other hands reach out....

Love is knotted and gnarled, like an old tree fighting with the wind, like branches too brittle for their own good, like roots that relentlessly inform how deeply we can trust and how freely we can forgive.

My theology understands humanity as simultaneously fragile and resilient, weak and strong, greedy and generous, mean and compassionate. I see the divine spark in the tension between those opposites....

From Does God Have a Big Toe? Stories About Stories in the Bible (HarperTrophy, 1993). Used with permission. Jacob cried a lot. Jacob cried when he was happy. Jacob cried when he was sad. But mostly Jacob cried when he saw beautiful things....