Editors’ Note

We often have to get away from it all to see the ordinary as extraordinary. Our first two articles give us a sense of wonder about travel. The first explores the unlikely efficiencies of biblical travel—and how crucial ancient transportation was in spreading the gospel. In the second, author Katelyn Beaty discovers a commonplace food only when she’s far, far away, high up in the Andes.

If you’ve wondered about the science behind Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed, you’ll appreciate “The Miracle of Exponential Growth.”

And if you’re looking for a prayer to honor the Savior on the occasion of his birth, you might enjoy this issue’s poem, which I composed a few years ago.

Another hodge-podge issue, but then again, as theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar notes, we can find grace notes anywhere:

For this voice from eternity whispers and breathes right through everything that exists in the world, all intra-mundane values; and, without depriving the things of this world of their meaning and value, it lends them a bottomless dimension, exploding whatever is closed, relativizing whatever seems ultimate, revealing hidden depths in what seems simple, sweetening pain and bringing reconciliation to what is tragic.

—Mark Galli, co-editor

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Also in this Issue

Issue 12 / December 25, 2014
  1. Shipping the Gospel

    The relative sophistication of ancient travel is a key to the spread of the gospel. /

  2. When Grace Goes Down Like Soup

    The ancient food is a leveler and a great comfort. /

  3. The Miracle of Exponential Growth

    For one thing, it would take us 100 billion years to grow up otherwise. /

  4. When Eternity Played by the Calendar

    A Christmas prayer /

  5. Wonder on the Web

    Links to amazing stuff

Issue Archives