Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary (c)2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, January 3, 2026

The day after Christmas I was taking my usual after-breakfast walk when I spotted this beautiful red Toyota. But I’d never seen it colorfully festooned with yellow spurts.

I studied it carefully. Was it art? After all, two blocks away I once saw a little Cooper Mini carefully painted, front-to back, with real artists’ paint. It looked beautiful. But if the above automobile was an art project, I realized that I would have to do a great deal of study on the topic of abstract art before I might be able to discern a “message” in it.

Finally, my curiosity got the better of me. I reached out a finger, captured some of the yellow on it, and tasted it. Sure enough, it was mustard. And then I saw the yellow splotches on the curb. Somebody had pulled an after-Christmas prank.

The next morning the car wasn’t there. Instead, it was parked safely up in the driveway, and a lot of water droplets on its hood may have indicated that the owner had sloshed off all of the yellow that very morning.

James 1:27 boils true religion down into two essentials. “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this,” he says, “to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

That’s what this car owner did. Spots – however sidesplittingly funny the applier may have thought them — don’t belong on a car somebody else owns. (Would mustard cause problems to the paint?) The owner didn’t delay, but scrubbed those spots off.

God is always willing to forgive us our sins and eradicate our “spots.” To learn more, click the link just below:

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

Photo ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, January 2, 2026

On a corner of the Renton housing development where Shelley and I live there’s a house whose owners go to a great deal of working putting up homemade Christmas décor. Shelley and I always consider the Christmas season officially kicked off when those decorations appear.

A few days back I was walking past this home, looking with benign pleasure on the decorations, I glanced down and spotted this zip tie on the sidewalk. Thinking I might be able to use it in one of these blogs, I snapped its picture, and you see it above.

The more I mulled over that zip tie, the more significant it became. A couple of days later I picked it up and took it home with me.

What’s so important about this zip tie? For one thing, zip ties are tough. They’re designed to keep things captive. (I have a couple of bigger zip ties holding part of my car fender so it doesn’t catch the wind!)

Also, zip ties can only tighten. They can’t loosen. You can’t make a zip tie go backwards, because of the one-way teeth along the strip that feeds through the square slot.

One more fact. There’s only one way you can release the “captive” from this tie – get a heavy-duty pair of scissors, or a sharp knife, and cut it loose. This is what happened here. I have no clue as to what was held captive, but a “higher power” had to intervene!

You know where I’m going with this, right? Sure you do. Those Christmas decorations, and many others through our neighborhood, glow encouragingly to remind us that Jesus was born into a sin-trapped world to cut us free with His death.

To review how this has happened, click the link just below:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/salvation

Photo ©2025 by Darren Milam
Wednesday and Thursday, December 31, 2025 and January 1, 2026

As most of you read this, it’s December 31st—the very last day of 2025. New Year’s Eve. In just a few hours, we’ll turn the page and step into 2026.

This past year, I was fortunate enough to travel more than usual. One of those adventures took us through several beautiful corners of Switzerland. The photo you see was captured in the town of Grindelwald, looking up toward three iconic peaks of the Swiss Alps: the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau. The mountain glowing in the morning sun is the Monch, rising proudly to about 13,500 feet.

When we arrived the night before, every peak was swallowed in clouds—completely hidden from view. But the next morning, just as the first light began to spill over the horizon, the clouds parted. And within moments, this is what appeared.

It felt as though the heavens had opened just to reveal these mountains in all their glory. In that moment, it reminded me of fresh starts—of how quickly a new beginning can emerge once the clouds clear.

You, too, have that same opportunity. A new year. A clean slate. A chance to begin again. And God stands ready to leave 2025 behind with you and walk beside you—every day—as 2026 begins.

Photo ©2025 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Religion goes deep within the psyche of man. According to Philip Yancey, “No society in history has attempted to live without a belief in the sacred, not until the modern West.” (Rumors of Another World) One of the possible reasons for the secularization is the opportunity to travel and be exposed to the religions of other cultures. While we may hold tenaciously onto our own beliefs, those of another culture may seem foolish or primitive from our perspective. That was something I struggled with while visiting Bali. Even though the island of Bali is strongly Hindu, the nation of Indonesia, of which it is a part, is predominately Muslim. In fact it is the largest Muslim nation in the world.

We were there on their New Year’s Day which this year happened to fall on March 22. Nyepi is a Balinese “Day of Silence.” Everything shuts down. From 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning the day is set aside for self-reflection, silence, and meditation. There are to be no fires, working, or travel. Even the international airport is closed. Not surprisingly, there are certain aspects of this I found very attractive.

The day before Nyepi is celebrated with a ritual procession through the streets led by children carrying symbolic statues made of cloth, tinsel and Styrofoam. These Ogoh-ogoh, or demonic statues, symbolize malevolent spirits which control their lives. This display ends in an open-air auditorium where these statues are paraded around and sometimes shaken until they fall apart, much to the delight of the onlookers. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to think I understand their religious thought process, but I do feel it is unfortunate they believe they can rid themselves of the evil that is within through this human manipulation. However, the positive takeaway is that they recognize the very real war going on within themselves. We can learn from all.

Along this same line of thinking I came across something written by a fellow Christian who, though not part of my own denomination, spoke eloquently about something that is important to me—the Sabbath. Eugene Peterson wrote: “If you keep the Sabbath, you start to see creation not as somewhere to get away from your ordinary life, but a place to frame attentiveness to your life.” Amen and Amen!

Photo ©2006 and Commentary ©2025 by Chuck Davis
Monday, December 29, 2025

The image for today’s photo parable shows the steep path up the final ridge of Pratt Mountain. The photo makes clear that a winter ascent is best accomplished on snowshoes. Seeing a well-defined path is an indication that the journey, no matter how difficult, is possible.

To be with Jesus during the years of His ministry must have extremely hard. But during those years He led His disciples as a shepherd leads his sheep. Christ always provided a path.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him (Matthew 4:18-22 NIV).

Even as His path became more difficult, He was there in the front: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24 NIV).

As Peter wrote his first letter, he must have remembered his last walk alone with Jesus. Jesus asked three times if Peter loved Him. “Feed my sheep.” Through his letters, Peter is still feeding His sheep.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21 NIV)

I hope that this photo reminds you that a life lived for Christ is a life full of following. Study His path and follow in His footsteps. Feed His sheep.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, December 28, 2025

He tore off the giftwrap with an anticipatory grin, then slumped back on the couch and wailed, “But I already READ this!”

I was nonplussed, disconcerted, and vainly searching for the right words to help the situation, when my young relative’s mother stepped in and tried to both soothe his disappointment and encourage better gift-opening behavior.

I remembered this young lad a couple of weeks ago when I was trying to find gifts I thought the recipients would be happy to receive this holiday season. And I thought that, even though Scripture says it is more blessed to give than to receive, sometimes it is also easier to give than to receive.

That’s especially true if you are expected to unwrap a gift in the presence of the giver. How do you react if you are allergic to the gift, or if it is something you can’t quite recognize, or – as in my above example of young relative meltdown – something you don’t want. Your immediate reaction may be to wail, “But I already HAVE this!” or to forthrightly ask, “What IS this?” but manners you learned at your mother’s knee prevent such ungrateful responses.

I couldn’t quite place the context of that Bible verse about giving and receiving, so I hunted it down. I found it in the book of Acts, where Paul is saying farewell to the Ephesians elders, after telling them that none of them would ever see him again.

Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:355 NIV)

So these are not the words of Jesus recorded in one of the gospels, but Paul reminding people of something Jesus said. I wish I knew the context of Him saying it. I wonder if this is something He said more than once, with a twinkle in His eye, as in, “Now, remember . . .”

There’s another Bible verse about receiving that hit me hard when I first read it. It immediately earned a prominent spot on my refrigerator, reserved for frequent viewing:

For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (I Corinthians 4:7 NKJV)

It’s Paul again, encouraging better gift-receiving behavior. He says he is writing not to shame them, but to warn them, as his beloved children. Apparently they were getting a bit high and mighty, rather than keeping low and humble.

Sometimes when I walk by our refrigerator I mutter to myself, “What do you have that you did not receive?” and it gets me to recalling blessing after blessing after blessing I have received from the hand of my good God.

Which reminds me of one more Scripture passage on gift-giving:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

The best gift of all is Jesus, our Saviour, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When we’ve taken down the tree and the lights, eaten the last of the Christmas goodies, and written all our thank-you notes, this truth remains.

We celebrate this Gift at Christmas and Easter, but He is not only the reason for these seasons, but our Emmanuel, God with us, walking beside us every day, all the way Home.

Hallelujah!

Photo and Commentary (c)2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, December 27, 2025

This week on a visit to our local library, I paused in front of the Friends of the Library shelves, where donated books are offered for sale (paperbacks 50 cents and hardbacks a dollar).

What caught my attention, and the reason why I positioned the camera so it was front-center, was The Berlitz Self-teacher: Italian. My mind whooshed back to the end of my 8th grade year at a one-room Seventh-day Adventist grade school. My very perceptive teacher, who was leaving, gave me a few of her personal books, and my favorite among them was The Berlitz Self-teacher: Spanish.

After my first glance inside the book, I was filled with electric ambition. “I can do this,” I said to myself, and that whole summer I burrowed relentlessly through its pages.

One thing that encouraged me was that all through the book, there were three lines of type. The top was Spanish, and just below it were phonetic pronunciations. (“Libro.” LEE-broh.) The third line was English.

Another thing that made the book interesting was that it was intensely practical. This was no dry, head-in-the-clouds textbook. Instead, the Berlitz people presented their instruction as though you were visiting Madrid and wanted to talk your way into cafes, bookstores, the train station, major tourist sites, all using those delightful three lines of print. At the end of each chapter, a cartoon “professor” gave you an easy quiz on the material.

By the end of the summer, I was by no means able to hold my own in a Spanish conversation, but I knew a few of the basics. I could repeat the alphabet, count the numbers, and notice the excellent sense of putting exclamation marks and question marks not only at the end of sentences but also at the start. This way, you could work up the necessary emotion in expressing a sentence’s meaning.

If you’ll glance at the other titles on this shelf, you’ll see that this is the “self-teacher” section. Starting from the leftmost book (I’ve got a Grill, Now What?) to Robert Fulghum’s best-selling All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, these books insist that by turning their pages you’ll be better prepared for life.

As someone who’s spent nearly four decades reading and preaching on the Bible’s 735,000 words, I can confidently say that Scripture could be wedged onto this shelf. Through its history, stories, songs, proverbs, not a single line veers off into misty-wisty philosophy.

Why not make it a New Year’s resolution to regularly read large portions of Scripture in 2026? If you do, you’ll learn something far more important than tourist-Spanish. You’ll learn the habits and the language of heaven!

To review what the Bible says about itself, click the link just below:

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