Leonard R. Davidson

Once as I sat on a 737 getting ready to leave the gate at the airport, my window seat overlooked the luggage loading area. A large tractor had pulled the string of carts up to a long conveyor belt that ran into the belly of the plane. A worker (I’ll call him “Larry the luggage

True friends are hard to come by. Ron and Jackie Hill are those kinds of friends. While we only go out with them about once a year, it feels as if we have just seen them the week before. We know that if we needed them, all we would have to do is call, and

Mrs. Smith has actually been the premier apple pie maker in our home. My wife makes the best coconut cream pies in the world from scratch, which is the only way I will have pie. Since I don’t like apple pie, it never bothered me to just let Mrs. Smith handle that area.  One year, my

Early one Saturday morning, I was sitting on the deck watching a female robin build a nest (or rather try to build a nest). She had chosen a location on the downspout that comes off the gutter. The spout was heavily sloped and made of shiny white aluminum. The surface was obviously very slick. I

A few years ago, my wife, Tammi, and I were with a small group of friends. Brock Gill, an amazing Christian illusionist, was a part of the group. Someone asked him to do a couple of  “tricks” for us. He had been traveling all day with his wife and was obviously very tired, but graciously

Recently I heard a meteorologist on the Weather Channel say something profound—No one knows when, or where the next devastating storm will come. But we do know this; there will be another storm.” Sounds a lot like life, doesn’t it? It has been said that we are either in a storm, coming out of a

A strong-weathered hand tightly gripped the razor sharp knife raised over the body of a young boy lying loosely bound on a crude, makeshift altar. An altar covered with dry wood that the same boy had carried to the top of this mountain. The wood was soon to be set aflame. This was not just

What a value. Last year, a colleague related an interesting story. Evidently his daughter needed some new Christmas plates. Those of us who are men should be very grateful that God created women to live our lives with us. Otherwise, we would use the same plates all year—even at holiday times.  Now, you can even

When my grandson, Elijah, was 2, he loved Lego building blocks. I was constantly amazed at how he would spend hours building and creating with blocks that I could barely stack into a rickety tower. Elijah assembled little vehicles, houses, small cities and yes, even towers like his pappy. Somewhere in the recesses of a

My wife and I had just finished a wonderful dinner at my son’s home with he and his wife and two of our grandchildren. We were relaxing in the proverbial “food coma” when I asked the next logical question—”What’s for dessert?” My daughter-in-law, the ultimate “coupon-find-it-on-sale-bargain-shopper,” laughed and said, “Oh, that reminds me, I want to show you

Peanuts. It is amazing that I still love them after all the drama they caused me as a very young boy. My mom kept a very large can of them in the cabinet. She kept a container the size of a tub of coffee, or an old “Crisco” can shut up tight with a plastic

“Who gives this woman to be wed to this man?” Even though I was expecting this question, hearing it asked by the minister (who is my other son-in-law, Evan) caused a bit of pause. Keep in mind that other than writing a bunch of checks, this was my only real part in the ceremony. I was

I was going to a birthday party. Like any great Pappy, I stopped on the way to the party to get my grandson, Elijah, a present for his first birthday. He was at the age where he mimicked sounds. If you asked him, “What does a doggie say?” His reply was “Arf.” How did he

One of the things that good “Baptists” did not do back in “the old days” was go to the theater. As a very young boy I wasn’t sure why, but it seemed to have something to do with going to Heaven, along with not having long hair (guess that shows my age). One summer, when

True friends are hard to come by. Ron and Jackie Hill are those kinds of friends. While we only go out with them about once a year, it feels as if we have just seen them the week before. We know that if we needed them, all we would have to do is call, and