Melissa Barclay

The avian must not have been pleased with me following because it dropped its feast on the grass and ascended to land on a branch over the road. Upon landing, a white head and yellow beak confirmed it was a bald eagle. I stopped and...

The wild morning glories quietly demonstrate that following the sun brings life and beauty to their form. In the same way, shouldn’t we...

The whales and dolphins, pelicans and gulls, music of the waves, and brilliant sunshine all sing of the presence of the Spirit of God around us. They seek and hover around the food they need until they are full. We can’t hide from the Spirit, but we need to...

Today I listened to a wellness discussion on trust in relationships, and Dr. Omayra Mansfield shared this, “The research shows that listing three things we are grateful for daily for 10 days is equivalent to...

The creatures eating along our shore, racing across the sand, flying in the heavens, and dancing in the sea go about their daily work willingly because the instinct created within tells them how to live and flourish. Shouldn’t we do the same? We were created with the same instinct to willingly offer our…

A friend has been unemployed the last few months. A couple days ago, I received a request to pray for a new job and that there was a possibility being explored. Right away I wrote the request down including details. Less than 24 hours later I received a...

Some weeks bring us to our knees. In reality, every week should find us on our knees. Driving up the side of the literal Mt. Etna in Sicily you view a...

Some of us have branches that reach to the sky and provide shade and cool rest for those below. Others have roots that have grown deeper in search of the water of life. We serve and rest in our seasons to be a display of God’s...

I think God prefaced the sound of the gentle whisper with the bright noise to provide contrast and recall to Elijah the memory of how God spoke to him. Elijah knew the gentle whisper like an intimate friend. He had been seeing and hearing God through the gentle whisper for years. However, the stress and chaos became so loud he had a case of amnesia until…

My church has a presence in these countries, but at this time no one was talking about the mission fields in the first world. Over the next few years, I began to see how our country is gradually following Europe into the same secularism, although maybe 15-20 years behind. Through this process, it has become a practice to observe and ask what can be learned for...

Ancient Rome in the time of the Caesars was an entirely different place full of the worship of pagan gods, grand imperialism, lavish living, and mythical symbolism. The Seven Hills of Rome were within the walls from about the 6th century BC forward and can still be recognized by buildings named after the hill where they rest. Roman law forbade placing cemeteries inside of city walls, and in ancient times a cemetery sat outside the western wall on the southern slope of the Vatican hill called the necropolis.

My map reading adventures began when I was proclaimed the navigator on road trips. Barely able to read, my mom taught me to follow the map route she had shown me on the map so that I could tell her the number or name on the next road we needed to take.