Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Cheryl Boardman
Monday, November 20, 2023
I went to Pinnacles National Park several years ago. It’s located in Central California and people go there to climb, to hike, to see caves (with bats), to see condors and even to see tarantulas when they migrate in the fall. I, of course, went to see flowers. I wouldn’t have minded seeing some condors but didn’t see any while I was there.
This photo is of a venus thistle and it’s quite striking, especially with the red color! While I think thistles can be amazing to look at, they are not something I would like to walk through or try to eliminate from my food crops.
I like these verses that talk about looking for a merciful and forgiving God and go on to talk about how God thinks and works differently from us and how we will end up with no more weeds!
Seek GOD while he’s here to be found,
pray to him while he’s close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to GOD, who is merciful,
come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.
“I don’t think the way you think.
The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
GOD’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.
“So you’ll go out in joy,
you’ll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to GOD,
living and lasting evidence of GOD.”
Isaiah 55:6-13 (The Message)