Hello friend, Liz here.

This Christmas I’m searching for signs of life. “Life” in the abstract is so slippery—we can see it and name it and measure it and cultivate it, but we can do very little to MAKE it in the first place.

It reminds me of my favorite scriptural parable in Mark 4:26-27: “And Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.’”

With all our tremendous advances, scientists cannot name the exact mechanism that makes a baby grow in a woman’s uterus or even the mechanism that sends the baby down the vaginal canal on its birthday. Which seems like the most basic question: how does our human life begin? We still don’t know for sure.

Much of life is mysterious and will remain mysterious even after our lifetimes have ended.

But at least we can observe the tendrils of green, even if we can’t do much more than that. Life pulses beneath the snow in my backyard; that’s a truth more certain than your next breath.

I pray you experience abundant life in this holiday season, friend. Thanks for reading.

And could I ask, if you’ve read this far, would you share this message with a friend? That’s the best Christmas gift you could give me.

Warmly, Liz Charlotte Grant

P.S. Like always, you can follow me elsewhere on my website, on Facebook and on Instagram.

the Envy List

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Emmy proves politicians aren’t all useless. Then again, what does it say that holding press conferences are Emmy-worthy? (Hyperallergic) Read more…

NASA finally built a toilet for women on the International Space Station!! (The Atlantic) Read more…

The photographer who documented her aging process across four decades in what amounts to a published family photo album. (The New Yorker) Read more…

If alien life exists, it likely resembles the creatures scientists have discovered in the deepest parts of our own watery planet. (National Geographic) Read more...

Maybe you’ve already heard, but we finally have a coronavirus vaccine. (Cue the happy tears of great joy that will be for all the people!) Here’s the chain of deep freezers that will get it to you. (Scientific American) Read more…

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