You cannot put out the light. It is like an unruly spark. When you try to suppress it, it divides into a thousand flying embers. You thought you extinguished the light when they lay dead at your feet, no longer praying to the God you despise; but look around, it ignites in my heart! It…Read more An Open Letter to al Shabab, and a Painting in Honor of the Kenyans Who Died
Jesus
What Christmas Means to Me
Christmas, only a few days away, beckons me to pause, just for a moment. I sift below the glitter and finery. I dig down deep to a mystery - messy and gritty. I remember what happened last year. And then my heart soars with joy. This, this is what Christmas means. For those of you who read this…Read more What Christmas Means to Me
Sifted Into Gold
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Peter Denies Jesus Luke 22:59-62 Then about an hour later still another…Read more Sifted Into Gold
Just to Touch the Hem
Nairobi, June 2005 She refused to eat. Her forehead felt warm. She cried incessantly. Nothing alleviated her discomfort. As a sojourning foreigner, I lacked even the name of a pediatrician in Kenya, much less contact information. Even if I knew who to call, I couldn’t easily access transport. My one solace – I knew that…Read more Just to Touch the Hem
Redemptive Art
I wandered for many years, searching for the space where art, social justice, and faith interweave. For decades, I felt that art and social justice were separate compartments of my life; and I could not find overlap. I painted here and there, but focused the bulk of my energy on the urgent social justice issue of…Read more Redemptive Art
Beautiful Wound
He studied my face, streaked with happy tears. His little eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then he leaned on my shoulder and melted into my embrace. For days after, if he was awake, he was in my arms. Only his new grandma would suffice in my place for brief periods of time. Bonding between me and…Read more Beautiful Wound
A Prayer for Haiti 2
Haiti snuck in as a most unexpected visitor. My heart cracked to make space for it. Vulnerable and achingly beautiful, its vivid colors play in my mind, dancing in the brilliant sun on naked hills. Before and after I visited early this year, I read everything I could to try to understand how such crushing…Read more A Prayer for Haiti 2
Scars That Tell of the Good Life
With the kind of radiance that hints at secret knowledge of something very deep and very good, Noyo eagerly describes the privilege he feels in serving his native country, Haiti, as a Young Life staff-worker. “Just because something is easy,” he explains, “doesn’t mean it is the best. If you do something easy, it doesn’t…Read more Scars That Tell of the Good Life
Wherever I am on this Planet
Through all the glitter, tedium, and crush of this life... I’ve seen it in rural Vietnam in the shining eyes of parents who care for eight orphaned boys… ...in the joyful upturned faces of the persecuted church of Nepal, who gather without fear… ...in those who awoke in the desperate poverty of Mathare Valley, the second largest…Read more Wherever I am on this Planet
The Mystery of Christmas
She stands alone on a dark sidewalk, snow falling. She stares, captivated by a scene framed in the window. A family gathers. She can see the love that binds them, as real and palpable as the wind that cuts through her old and torn clothing. She wonders if she will ever be home. She lingers…Read more The Mystery of Christmas
Colleen Briggs Art & Writing 