On December 13th, 1885, a young woman living in a small mountainous Italian village gave birth to a baby boy she could not afford to raise. The next day, she stroked his dark hair and watched in loving fascination as his tiny hand curled around her pinky finger. She gently wiped her breastmilk from his mouth as he began to fall asleep, his tiny eyelids pink with fatigue. Desperate to freeze time, she watched as the sunset at 4:30 p.m. She waited another hour and a half to leave where she was staying as the moon was half full and she could not risk being seen. As she stepped outside…

I always find it disappointing when people say to me that the bible isn’t relevant to modern people. As if the inner workings of the heart of men have somehow radically evolved across the centuries.  Consider crowdfunding. It’s easy to believe it’s a modern invention. Sort of mankind’s evolution into good intentions. If you look up the history of crowdfunding, the internet will tell you it began with the British punk rock band, Marillion.  In 1997, the band asked their loyal fan base to help fund their next album, Anoraknophobia, by purchasing advance orders. In exchange, the fans who bought the album were mentioned by name in the liner notes.…