Author: Jeff Hampton

For Wilshire Baptist Church

We were eating a late lunch at home on Tuesday when we heard the familiar wail of the city’s emergency sirens. But then we looked at each other with the same thought: It was the wrong day of the month, wrong day of the week, wrong time of day. Something was not right.

The sirens are tested at noon on the first Wednesday of every month. Any other day or time and it means it’s not a test. We’d already been out and about that morning and knew the weather was fine. So why the sirens? It didn’t take long for folks on social media sites like Nextdoor and Ring to start asking the same question.

Continue reading “Easter Confusion”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Nothing heralds the coming of Easter for me more than the call of a blue jay on a sunny, cool spring day when flowers and trees are just beginning to bloom. The call sometimes has two notes at once, creating a distinctive harmonic sound, and it’s music to my ears as Easter approaches.

Why the blue jay? For most of my growing up years we went to my maternal grandparents’ house in Orange, Texas for Easter. It felt like a sacred pilgrimage as we left home at dawn, drove to Tyler and descended down through the Piney Woods passing farms and small towns, lumber yards and sawmills, dogwoods and sumac. Then, during our four days in Orange we’d visit extended family and friends, play in the shady green yard and take long walks around the pretty town full of old houses, old trees and azaleas. And then on Sunday, there’d be church, lunch, an Easter egg hunt with a white coconut bunny cake, and then we’d pile into the car for the six-hour drive home.

Continue reading “The Herald of Easter”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Have you ever lost something? Something you cherished, wanted, needed? And you felt like you’d lost your mind searching for it?

On a recent Friday night I lost my keyless car fob – you know, the kind you keep in your pocket or purse that lets you operate your car. LeAnn and I had gone to Dillard’s together to replace Christmas gifts that didn’t fit. She was going upstairs to look at tops and I was staying downstairs to look for a belt. “Look for a sport coat too,” she said and smiled as I frowned.

Continue reading “Lost and . . . Not Lost”