Tanara McCauley

Culturally Imagined Stories

Tag: faith

  • Twice the Miracle (Updated)

    (Originally posted circa April 2013) I could tell by the look in the nurse’s eyes she wasn’t sure I understood what she’d said. We stared at each other, she with brow lifted waiting for some sign of comprehension on my end, me drifting inside myself with a host of “what ifs” tumbling through my mind.…

  • Beautiful

    A woman had a dream. She walked for miles through fields and deserts, grasslands and marshes, following the sun. It warmed her face and shined in her eyes, making her squint as she journeyed. She pushed aside tall stalks of wheat, trudged through wet sand. She strained her thighs up steep mountainsides. In every place…

  • The Cookie Jar

    “A cookie jar, though beautiful, will always disappoint if found empty.” My cookie jar is empty. It’s seen a batch or two–maybe–in the months since I returned home from Mount Hermon’s Christian Writers Conference; but for the most part it’s been unoccupied. Relieved of duty. Free of tenants. And for a while I blamed my…

  • The Labor of the Journey

    “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…” John 15:16 My youngest is in the first weeks of her kindergarten career. After years of seeing her older siblings off to school and spending her days with me all…

  • Who Are You?

    “Search me, O God and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 I’ve had recent cause to suffer a great amount of indignation over a situation involving a loved one. Though I’ll spare the details,…

  • Be “Hoo” You Are

    ~My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word~ Psalm 119:148 As a young child I came alive at night, and snoozed each morning till the last possible second. In college I signed up for all the evening classes I could find. The professor of my one morning class once gave…

  • Don’t Lose the Wonder

    “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” ~Revelation 2:4~ My kids and I walked through the parking lot looking for our car. “Ooh, a bird!” I pointed to a cute little sparrow as it hopped out from behind a tire. My youngest looked to where I pointed, her eyes…

  • A Wrecked Perspective

    “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Recently, on a day like any other, my three kids and I set out for an evening of gymnastics and Kenpo practice, with a potential coffee stop squeezed in. The smell of mint wafted from…

  • The Goodness of God

    I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. ~Psalm 27:13 It was Valentine’s Day, 2009. The NBA All-Star festivities were taking place in Phoenix, and my husband Jon and I decided it would be fun to go as a…

  • Happy and Prosperous 2015!

    A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. ~Proverbs 16:9 It’s the second week of the new year, and I hope you are still as excited about your goals and resolutions as you were at the beginning. I know I am. 2014 ended with the blessed commotion of travel, family, laughter,…