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I would bet that you know a little about the story of Hosea, that during a time in Israel’s history when they had abandoned God, he asked the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute. In loving her faithfully, Hosea would allegorically demonstrate God’s relentless love to Israel despite her whoring (yes, the Bible even consistently uses that word) after other things besides the Lord God.  But then Hosea starts to have children, and just as his marriage prophesied to the people of Israel, so did the names of his children - names like No Mercy and Not My People.  God tells Hosea to name one of the children Jezreel, saying “I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel” and “I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” I wondered about this, so I flipped back to 2 Kings 9-10, where we learn that Jezebel, one of the most wicked women in the Bible, as well as king Joram and king Ahaziah were murdered in revenge by Jehu in Jezreel. It’s one of those s...

Snowflakes flurried in the beam of his headlamp, which shone like a bright white wedge, a drastic contrast to the dark woods. The fog of his breath also caught the light of his headlamp, and then lifted and vanished into the moonless night. Nothing could be seen outside the distinct boundaries of that beam of light. He tilted his head back and looked into the thick, clouded sky, and the light caught the crystal edges of each glimmering snowflake as they floated and fluttered, taking their time to drift down to earth by the most indirect route.  The night was so quiet that I could almost hear the snowflakes landing, a muffled quietness only undertoned by the crackling of the campfire. I directed my gaze downward and stared at the movement of the flames and the glowing embers, warmed by the closeness. I watched snowflakes blow into the fire and disappear, amazed by how such extremes of cold and heat can get close enough to touch for just an instant, and I was equally amazed that...