Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, January 31, 2026
A week ago was what you could call Cold Week in the Pacific Northwest. While saying this, I realize that people in other parts of the United States would probably have paid good money if we could have piped our temperatures into their regions. But for us, it was colder than we are used to.
It was either a week ago Thursday or Friday that Shelley and I bundled up and trudged our way along our neighborhood’s frosty sidewalks. I happened to glance down, and spotted this beautiful little leaf lying neatly between the two sidewalk slabs.
What’s so beautiful, to me, is that from one end to the other, this leaf portrays the spectrum of its entire lifecycle. The lower half is a healthy green, but the upper part, from the stem down, shows that winter is choking off the nutrients that would keep the leaf alive. I don’t know where this leaf is now, or what color it is, but it will eventually turn brown and dissolve.
Providentially, the human race need not face this same fate. Humanly speaking, unless Jesus returns first, we all will return to dust – but the Bible trumpets the glorious news that beyond our earthly fate we can all have eternal life. To find the full spectrum of God’s renewing power, scroll through the verses at the link below!