The peony and the rose

'Madame Magloire,' the bishop answered, 'you are mistaken; the beautiful is as useful as the useful.' He added, after a moment's silence, 'More so, perhaps.'"
- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables


Tonight in student ministries, we had a Halloween party. My core group carved hearts, robot-shaped kids, a cross, and a Jesus fish out of a pumpkin. I took the pumpkin home and set it on our doorstep.

Fiction

One partly cloudy afternoon, James was walking home from the bus stop. While walking through the Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot, James spotted, beside a rusty storm drain cover, a card the size of half a sheet of paper. The card was the color of the sky, and on it was scrawled in a neon orange font, "The Shortcut Church." Below, it said, "We get you to heaven faster than any other church!"

James slipped the card into his backpack's small pocket as a souvenier, and continued walking home.