First Presbyterian Church of Valparaiso

“For behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” -Linus VanPelt quoting scripture at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas. It has become a yearly tradition for my family to watch all the Christmas specials. Quite frankly, I can still remember the

If you’re like me, a long-time fan and listener of National Public Radio, you’ll know that the term “driveway moments” refers to those times you’ve pulled into your driveway listening to a story on the radio, a story so timely or interesting that you just have to sit in your car for a few more minutes, listening until the end of the story. Monday morning’s NPR piece on Christmas Lights struck me as a “driveway moment” (even though I was still in my PJ’s and not actually in my

Advent 2020 is turning out to be a rather different kind of advent than many of us have experienced in years past. Both public and private celebrations have been much reduced to deal with the COVID pandemic that has cast a dark shadow over all the world. Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah relayed a promise of God that a light will shine on “those who live in a land of deep darkness.” (Isaiah 9.2) I can’t help but think sometimes that it is w

I grew up in Paoli, a town of around 3,000 people in southern Indiana. A woman there has become a kind of archivist of local history, collecting memorabilia but also photographs of the town square, which she posts online—mostly in black and white, sometimes a bit blurry, but clear enough to reveal the names of the businesses that once thrived there. A photo in particular struck me, it was taken in 1957, when I was four years old, but—though the cars and trucks were replaced w