Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, July 27, 2024

Here’s my final flower garden update. In case you haven’t been following these blogs closely, I hasten to assure you this is not Shelley’s and my garden. It belongs to a neighbor four or five blocks from where we live. These folks have devoted their entire front yard to flowers of various kinds, majoring in roses, and this spring I decided to document how this garden grows.

I snapped the top photo on April 7, and the one below on July 18 from the same position. Isn’t this a fascinating (though faint) reflection of the glories of Eden? And don’t you trust a gardening God who lavishes color upon us?

Here’s an old hymn whose lyrics are by Didrik Petri, translated by Percy Dearmer:

Spring has now unwrapped the flowers,
Day is fast reviving,
Life in all her growing powers
Towards the light is striving:
Gone the iron touch of cold,
Winter time and frost time,
Seedlings, working through the mould,
Now make up for lost time.

Herb and plant that, winter long,
Slumbered at their leisure,
Now bestirring, green and strong,
Find in growth their pleasure;
All the world with beauty fills,
Gold the green enhancing;
Flowers make merry on the hills,
Set the meadows dancing.

Through each wonder of fair days
God Himself expresses;
Beauty follows all His ways,
As the world He blesses:
So, as He renews the earth,
Artist without rival,
In His grace of glad new birth
We must seek revival.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, July 26, 2024

I always get a heart-lift when I see community bulletin boards. This one is on the wall of the commons dining area at Lake Forest Park Town Center. You can tell how popular this mall is by how many local creatives have gotten permission to post their announcements on this board.

Some examples of what’s here: business cards from all kinds of services, a British auto show at a nearby state park, a safety day and bike rodeo for kids, the Shoreline tool library (which lends out garden and construction tools), voice lessons from a local music teacher, adult care sponsored by a local hospital, a Bible seminar, an outdoor preschool, a dog-walking service, continuing education courses from a local community college, an informational brochure on strokes, a female yogi, instruction on how to make boba tea, a youth basketball camp, an arts and crafts fair–and I’ve only just scratched the surface.

Why this explosion of creativity? In some cases to make money, I’m sure. But there are lots of regular ways to generate an income—steadier, less flashy, and more dependable ways.

I think that these creatives prove, by the magnificent variety of their offerings, that there is a Master Creator who gave them not only life but the longing to bring happiness to others.

And if there is such a Creator, we need to learn or review something about His vision. Check out the eight Bible verses at the link below:

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/creation-and-evolution

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, July 25, 2024

This is Wahkeena Falls, which is about a three fourths mile walk from Multnomah Falls in Oregon. Wahkeena is harder to reach because of the walk, but it is more enjoyable because people can get up close.

On the day we went it was hot, and the spray from Wahkeena falls felt cooling and good. It is like that when reading the words of Jesus. Here is an example.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28

On a hot day, it sure feels good to set down heavy burdens and take a break. When we give up our burdens to Jesus, it is like a cooling power that gives us peace.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

This past week our Sabbath School class was studying in 1 Corinthians, specifically these verses:

12:12-14 “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.”

What I love about these words is the reminder that our church is, and should be, very diverse. Diversity includes what our backgrounds are, where we are from, what we look like, how we share our cultures. However we are also the same. We are ONE, as we are all part of the body of Christ. We have one common goal – the reflection of God’s love to others.

If you know your flowers, you already know these images are of dahlias. Clearly you see the differences in individual blooms, but they are in the same family. When I see the differences in the color, the petal pattern, the details, it reminds me of the differences and diversity in each one of us, but just like our family of God – we are one and the same.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Members of the jay family, along with those of the parrot family, are considered among the smartest of their class. We admire their ability to solve problems but recognize in our own character some of the qualities they display which are less than noble. Included among this group is the California Scrub-Jay.

Take for example their penchant for stealing from their neighbors. Jays are known for storing up food for winter. They go to great lengths to cache food securely so that others will not be able to rob from their security blanket. When he goes to hide his treasure, he will be open about his actions if his mate is watching. But should a rival bird be present, he will seek to deceive his competitor by changing the location or even pretend he is changing the location and leave the cache in place. It’s a cat-and-mouse game. There are indications that he keeps track of who has been watching as well as when and where this takes place. He does so and yet may lose up to 30 percent of his stockpile per day. What is most interesting, though, is he will resort to these tactics only if he has robbed another’s stash himself.

It reminds us of the familiar passage in Luke 6:41 where Jesus hits the nail on the head: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (RSV) From this, and the jay’s example, we might conclude those who are most concerned about pilfering are those who have been known to engage in this themselves.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Cheryl Boardman
Monday, July 22, 2024

Where would we be without water on this planet? We wouldn’t get very far, that’s for sure.

I drove down a road that followed the Chiwawa River a few years ago. The Chiwawa River, located in Chelan County in Washington, starts in the Glacier Peak Wilderness and flows through the Wenatchee National Forest and then flows into the Wenatchee River which then flows into the Columbia. It was a very pretty drive following the river and it was refreshing just to look at the water. (It helped that I had some actual water to drink in the car.)

When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, He asked for water. He also talked to her about living water.

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:11-14 (NIV)

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, July 21, 2024

As we walked down the hall of a lovely retirement facility that was new to us, searching for the right apartment number, we noticed that outside each resident’s door was a small ledge, or shelf. Upon closer inspection we saw that each shelf held items that told us something about that occupant’s interests and personality. A silent “show and tell.”

After visiting the new friend we’d come to meet, we strolled back down the hall, able to look more leisurely at these displays. We could tell that residents enjoyed a wide variety of interests, including quilting, art, aircraft, orgami, gardening, and family.

One display made me wish I could meet its owner. Its most prominent feature was the stone you see in the photo above, which declares, “Nothing is written in stone.” I think this resident has a sense of humor!

I whipped out my phone to take the photo, and my Biblical languages scholar husband said, “Don’t forget the other stone!” I hadn’t paid any attention to the second stone, since I was busy chuckling at the first one, and I am not proficient in Hebrew. I obediently took the second stone’s photo while my husband explained that the word inscribed on it was, “Shalom.”

Since I regretfully decided it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to ring this resident’s doorbell and ask what they meant by the pairing of these two stones, I don’t know that. Instead, I have the fun of mulling them over to myself (and to you!).

My Bible study group has been working our way through the books of Genesis and Exodus, and we are now in the midst of Exodus 20, where God speaks His Ten Commandments to the thousands of Israelites he has recently liberated from 400 plus years of Egyptian slavery. He not only speaks; He then carves these commandments onto stone tablets – twice, because the first set was broken, both literally and in spirit.

Exodus 31:18 describes them as, “the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.” How much more could God have emphasized their importance?

I like to remember commandment comments made by journalist Ted Koppel in a 1987 Duke University commencement address:

“What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions, they are Commandments. Are, not were . . . The sheer brilliance of the Ten Commandments is that they codify, in a handful of words, acceptable human behavior. Not just for then or now but for all time.”

Written in stone, for all time.

Yet that was not enough. More than stone-writing was needed:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah 31:33 NKJV)

Our minds and hearts – that’s where God wants to write His commandments and covenant.

And when we invite Him to do that, we will experience what’s written on our second stone, shalom.

I’ve always thought of shalom as peace, a salutation wishing someone well. In recent years I’ve learned that the word goes deeper than that. Shalom means more than an absence of war or conflict.

“In the Bible, the word shalom is most commonly used to refer to a state of affairs, one of well-being, tranquility, prosperity, and security, circumstances unblemished by any sort of defect. Shalom is a blessing, a manifestation of divine grace.” *

I’m not sure what I would include if I put together a display outside my front door, on a small shelf that held my interests and gave a peek into my personality.

I’m glad the person behind this door gives us these two stones; they make me smile and make me ponder.

As we head out into this brand-new week, I wish you Shalom!

*Shalom: Peace in Hebrew | My Jewish Learning