A week before Christmas, my three-year-old got it in her head that I should get a book for Christmas. That day, I found one worth picking up, and she “secretly” wrapped it for me with her Mom’s help. That book has now been a daily part of my life for nearly month and will be for the coming eleven, and I confess to being somewhat tickled to have found it.

This 365-page devotional contains daily entries from Christians in every century of the last twenty. A casual scan of the names on each page’s top reveals a number of well-known headliners from Church History class: Augustine, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther. But further flipping turns the “Who’s Who” list into a “Who’s That” query: Daniel Defoe, Hilary of Poitiers, Theognostus, and the Scillitan martyrs to list a few.

The beauty of the book to me is in its width of representation. Various sources in recent years have directed my faith back to aged but fresh wells, particularly a number from the Catholic and Orthodox streams. These are exactly the materials so seldom found in any typically Evangelically-flavoured Christian bookstore in the Western hemisphere, and that’s why I was so pleasantly surprised to find a quality volume like this with Zondervan stamped on its spine, on a shelf in a local shop.

So to my three-year-old sweetie: Thank you, Love. Daddy loves the gift.

And to my cohort-through-the-centuries, I look forward to trekking with you this year. Lead me to where you’ve been and share with me the Lord who led and taught you. I come open.

I love any prank that makes people jump.  The Steelers’ star gets in on some great laughs here.

We’ve finally succeeded at overhauling our church website.  For a non-techie like myself, this feels major.  Not done yet, but it’s great to have something more attractive and usable.

Add a bookmark if you like: www.warmwelcome.ca.

Am I a bad person for feeling some pain for the poor Bombers today?  Because I did.  A little.

55-10 is a whooping on any day by any team.  Add 8 Winnipeg turnovers, and over 100 yards penalties by each team, and this one wasn’t pretty… unless you are a Riders’ fan.  What stood out?

• Durant continues to develop.  Turnovers have been the one real gripe people have had against him.  Today, he limited that to one interception–and the Bombers’ Dockett had to make a decent play to get that one.
• Cates continues to be a great running back for us.  Didn’t see his final numbers, but he brings everything to the table with his running, receiving, and blocking.
• Siddeeq Shabazz, obviously frustrated by the loss, needed some reining in late in this game.  Glad to see that no one got hurt.
• Fantuz looked a bit rusty up until he won the jumpball thrown to the endzone by Jason Armstead.  Nice to see a bit of trickery on offense.  Even nicer to see it work!
• Stu Foord ran well with some touches today.
• Dressler always gets a mention–he didn’t break loose today, but he’s always in the mix and making things happen.
• Jyles looked fine in the 4th, and I was glad to see us get him in there.
• The Bombers are not a terrible team, but they are in trouble.  And if any fans in the league know about the frustration of not having adequate QB’ing, it’s us Rider fans.  Mark it down: Casey Printers’ name WILL be spoken this week.  As I watched, I also wondered if there weren’t at least some regrets about letting both Glenn and Dinwiddie go in the off-season.
• Congi did all we asked him to do today.  Can’t look for more than perfection on the chances you give a guy.
• DB’s were buzzing today.  Some of our picks came because the Bombers’ QB’s made mistakes, but some were just hungry DB’s jumping on balls and out-battling receivers.  Gotta like seeing that.

As I said last week, a sweep of the Bombers is hardly big news this season.  But it had to be played out, and we played out well.  If we can hand a beating to the Esks next week, this province will be rocking.

Over and out for another week.