Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Cheryl Boardman
Monday, January 20, 2025

I saw what was left of this uprooted tree after it fell during a storm. Heavy winds, saturated ground and a shallow root system are probably the main reasons it fell. I read that most trees that are uprooted do not survive being replanted because their root system is irrevocably broken.

Here is some advice from Paul (in a couple of different Bible versions) to the Colossians about being deeply rooted in Jesus:

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 2;6-7 (NLT)

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7 (The Message)

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, January 19, 2025

I like baskets. When I see a display of them, my eyes light up and I have to mutter my Cautious Consumer Mantra a few times, “Feel free to admire without needing to acquire.”

There’s something about a well-made basket that makes me smile in appreciation, and sometimes, if I’ve ignored my mantra, in acquisition.

When I think back to baskets of my childhood, I only remember one. Maybe that’s because it outshines any and all other baskets I knew then. It was our picnic basket.

Our family liked to load up that large wooden basket with plates and silverware and cups and ketchup and mustard and all manner of good food and a big thermos. Then we’d load up the car, and head out to one of our southeastern Alaska rocky beaches to build a campfire and prepare to picnic heartily. Whenever I see a basket similar to our beloved picnic transport, I am awash in nostalgia, and immediately hungry for food eaten outdoors, at ocean’s edge.

If you ask me what Biblical baskets come to mind, it might be because of my fondness for those childhood picnics that I first recall the story I heard as a small child, when Jesus fed 5,000 people. I was impressed that he could make a boy’s humble lunch of two loaves of bread and five fish stretch to feed all those people. (I was much older when I realized there were not only 5,000 men, but also women and children, who didn’t make the count.)

I loved the end of this amazing picnic story – there were leftovers! Twelve baskets of leftovers! I enjoy leftovers almost as much as picnics! Those baskets tell me there was enough, and more than enough – very satisfying and reassuring to the anxious child I often was.

I learned another Biblical basket story before I was old enough to read it myself; maybe it was the first story that came to your mind – that of baby Moses floating on the river in a basket his mother had carefully made for him.

It could be such a fearsome story if the teller focused on the death decree that forced his mother to do what she did, and on what might become of a little baby floating alone on a river, abandoned by his parents.

Fortunately, I didn’t hear the story that way. Instead, I heard how a mother’s love constructed that waterproof basket, and sent the baby’s big sister to keep careful watch over him from the riverbank. And then a princess shows up and rescues the baby. All is well if a princess arrives on the scene!

When I scanned my memory for another New Testament basket, I thought of what must have been a very large and sturdy one:

After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. (Acts 9:23-25 NIV)

In the first verse of Acts 9, Saul is “still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples,” and before the end of the chapter he is trying to become one of them, at great risk to his life. I wonder how fast his heart was racing as the men lowered his basket through that wall! I’m sure his angel steadied that basket and made his escape possible.

Saul lived to become Paul, intrepid missionary for the Lord, church planter, author of up to half the books of the New Testament.

Moses lived to lead God’s chosen people out of slavery to the brink of the Promised Land, with 40 years of adventures and misadventures on the way. He authored the first five books of the Old Testament, and perhaps Job and a few of the Psalms.

Their baskets are strong reminders of God’s protection. He is Emmanuel, God With Us.

The baskets of Jesus-blessed bread and fish leftovers speak of God’s provision. He is the God of Enough, and More Than Enough.

Not only for there and then, Saul and Moses and 5,000 plus people, but also for here and now, you and me.

That’s great good news as we step out into this brand-new week: we do not walk alone. It’s always a journey with Jesus.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, January 18, 2025

This past Tuesday on a morning walk, I glanced up at the eastern sky and noticed the sun glimmering through the clouds in a dramatic way. I snapped the photo, and then went to work on it with my photo program’s “exposure” and “contrast” settings, with maybe a couple of others too. The reason I jockeyed with the photo was to show the dramatic effect of the sun breaking through the darkness.

“The Countdown Song” is a Christian children’s song about Jesus return. Lyrics and music are said to have been written by someone named Dorothy Montgomery. Here’s the first verse and chorus:

Somewhere in outer space,
God has prepared a place
For those who trust Him and obey.

Jesus will come again,
And though we don’t know when,
The countdown’s getting lower every day.

Ten and nine, eight and seven,
Six and five and four.
Call upon the Savior while you may
Three and two, coming through
The clouds in bright array.
The countdown’s getting lower every day.

The Bible clearly tells us that the metaphorical skies will indeed be dark just before Jesus returns. But the Savior encourages us to be ready.

To read a full Bible discussion about this pivotal event, click the link just below (and click the sub-links when you get to the site):

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/second-coming-jesus-christ

Photo and Commentary (c)2025 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, January 17, 2025

A few days ago, in a line at a pharmacy drive-through, I pulled to a stop behind this car. Since the pause was a long one, I noticed what was written on the license plate frame (I’ve blocked out the number for privacy).

She who laughs, lasts. Humor is therapeutic, right? “A merry heart does good, like medicine,” says Proverbs 17:22 [NKJV] “But a broken spirit dries the bones.” A few months ago Shelley and I had the joy of visiting a 102-year-old woman in her apartment several times, and we discovered that she could laugh heartily, thoroughly understanding the humorous nuances of many of her memories.

Think back to people you’ve known who’ve lived into their 80s, 90s and beyond. Most likely you’ve discovered that they’ve learned not to take themselves too seriously, and that they can tell many a self-deprecatory story.

Check out the verses at the following link to discover what the Bible says about contentment.

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/contentment

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, January 16, 2025

The ferns growing on this small building caught my eye. I wouldn’t want plants growing on my roof. But I have heard of sod roofs where grass grows, so it seems kind of natural that ferns would grow on the roof of a building in a rain forest.

I half expected all the men who visit this area would have those long bushy beards that are becoming popular. But fortunately, I didn’t see any.

It makes me think about our true natural environment. In the Mine Craft game, it is possible to walk or run from one environment to another such as from a sand biome to an ice biome to a mushroom biome. In real life, we can drive from a forest environment to a city environment in a short time.

However, our true environment may be where we can be free to be honest, to relax, to encourage, and to find the good in other people. We can have some of those good things now, even though at times we have to be unnaturally defensive in a troubled world. When we follow God’s guiding from the Bible, we can get a glimpse of a truly natural environment.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, January 15, 2025

In our Sabbath School class, we are studying Paul’s letter to the new believers of Philippi. Throughout the book of Philippians, Paul encourages the members of the church to continually grow, learn and ultimately share that with others. In verse 9 of chapter 1 he says, “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.”  This concept of growth wasn’t new, but he wanted them to understand that having information was different than truly understanding and putting that knowledge into actions.

If we go back a bit further in history, we can see this same concept being delivered to the children of Israel, from Moses –

Deuteronomy 32:1-4

“Listen, O heavens, and I will speak!
Hear, O earth, the words that I say!
Let my teaching fall on you like rain;
let my speech settle like dew.
Let my words fall like rain on tender grass,
like gentle showers on young plants.
I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
how glorious is our God!
He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
how just and upright he is!”

In this instance, Moses wanted his teachings to be received and ultimately be the nutrients the Israelites needed. God knew what His children needed, and He was using Moses as the instrument in the delivery of spiritual (and physical) guidance. Just as Paul was inspired to write to the people of Philippi. God is always providing what WE all need, at the moment we need it.

Nutrients, in the form of rain and dew, (as Moses mentioned) was and is from our loving Father. This dahlia (if it could communicate) would thank God for the nutrients He has sent, let’s make sure we do as well.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Imagine yourself in the shoes of King David. He is on the verge of handing over the reins of authority and power to his son Solomon. What can he say to motivate his heir-apparent to rule in such a way that it would meet the approval of his Lord? Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that David resorted to poetry to convey his message, perhaps not the vehicle you might select, but listen to his words and see if you don’t find them inspiring. “The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: ‘When one rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.’” (II Samuel 23:3-4 NIV)

Now take these same words, at least his closing ones, and see if they might also offer a descriptive picture of the Green-crowned Brilliant, a fairly large hummingbird found in the middle and upper strata of the forests extending from Costa Rica, south through Ecuador.

In proper light the glittery shade of emerald green, along with the deeply forked tail of the male, presents an image reminiscent of “brightness after the rain”. If this poetic verbiage is too much, then maybe you’ll find a better parallel in one of its other names, the Blue-throated Flying Dolphin. As for me, I’ll stick with “Brightness or brilliance after the rain.”