The first time I read The Lorax to my niece Vicki, she was seven. It made her cry. “Oh, Aunt Norma!” she exclaimed. “We have to do something!” Quickly, she had been drawn into the story so personally and profoundly that her little heart broke for the Truffula Trees and the Brown-Bar-ba-loots and the Swomee-Swans and the Humming-Fish and everything else damaged by the Once-ler’s greed and pollution. “What can we do?” she sobbed. “Who’s gonna speak for the trees?” I assured her that she could do that. And now, almost half a century later, she’s still a staunch environmentalist. The redemption of all creation is central to a Christian world-view shaped in childhood by her imagination. Faith mak

Life is hard. It’s not easy. In the last several years I’ve experienced a lot of challenges in life. On December 28, 2009, my middle daughter, who was 12 years old, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. So in 2010, we learned how to live with that illness. In 2012, I spent a lot of my time caring for my mom who eventually lost her battle with colon cancer on December 31st of that year. In March of 2014, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and endured 20 weeks of chemo and a double mastectomy. My final reconstruction was complete in January 2015, and we spent the rest of the year “getting back to normal.” Every day I do my best to jump, because I trust the One who’s there to catch me. Then in Ja