Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday and Monday, August 23 and 24, 2026

If I didn’t already know what time it is, what I see in this photo would tell me. It’s time for school to start.

When I saw these mountain ash trees and their beautiful berries along the fence line of our library’s parking lot this week, time unwound for me. The berries took me back.

I was a grade school kid again, fully engaged in our neighborhood tradition of gathering in my front yard to play, the night before school started. Just before our parents came out on porches and front steps to call us home, we picked berries from our mountain ash trees and pelted each other with them.

Then it was home to an earlier bedtime, with a mixture of emotions swirling inside about tomorrow, and the beginning of a new school year.

My mother had a first-day-of-school tradition that I thought was lovely. She released my long hair from its customary, no-nonsense braid down my back, and I walked to school feeling like a princess, with my golden hair flowing unrestricted.

I sat with these memories last night, remembering how it was to begin again each year, with high hopes for an understanding teacher and friendly classmates. How many years have I watched the calendar for that first day of school?

I started with kindergarten, counted up through my five years of college, five years of teaching, and grad school, then added my two and a half years working in a university, and thirty-four years of supporting a private school district in its education headquarters.

Over 60 years. No wonder I’m awash in nostalgia.

I’m also awash in prayers. Praying for young friends starting school for the first time, praying for high school friends making the big leap to college, praying for the parents of those who are flying time zones away to go to school, praying for teachers who face challenges I never dreamed of in my teaching years.

Praying most of all that students, parents, and teachers will all sense the steadying, loving presence of the Master Teacher.

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, August 22, 2026

Friday of this week, on our way back from a trip to our local library, Shelley and I stopped at a drugstore for something we needed. While she went inside, I settled down to wait. But my eye was grabbed by the presence of this car, parked across the intersection, facing out.

This photo, taken from a distance, is slightly out of focus, and I really should have gotten out of my car and strolled closer rather than depending on my smartphone’s telephoto setting. Trust me – the colors you see are just faint versions of the way this car has been painted and shined. And my own gaze wasn’t the only one fixed on it. Other arriving customers, the men especially, gazed steadily at it. And one man actually paused and saluted it.

I really can’t count myself as someone who would ever lust for such a car. My younger brother, far more car-conscious than me (who would wax and pinstripe his own vehicles back in the day) would probably wait around and talk to the owner about it. But there’s no doubt this “chariot” drew and held the male gaze.

Second Kings chapter 2 tells the story of how the prophet Elijah, at the end of his ministry, had the amazing experience of riding up to heaven in a chariot made of what looked like fire. His young successor, Elisha, witnessed this departure, and was immediately anointed by God to fill the older man’s prophetic sandals.

And Jesus and other Bible writers tell about another dazzling ascension to heaven —  the one where Jesus returns in person to take to heaven those who are eagerly awaiting His coming.

Click the link below to read or review this Second Coming, and how to make sure you learn how to be ready!

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

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, August 21, 2026

What you see in the above photo is a capsule. It used to be a probiotic capsule, because some time back Shelley decreed that she and I need to take one of these apiece each day. Exactly what a probiotic is, or does, remains a mystery to me, but I have learned the wisdom of being “pro” anything Shelley is “pro” about, biotics or anything else.

However, even a medicine-moron like myself, upon close examination of the above capsule, can ascertain that whatever lifegiving powder was once packed within it has now vanished, likely through the little slit I think I perceive at the left of the joint. The powder is probably still back in the bottle.

Which of course means that it has not been ingested into myself, nor into Shelley. Whatever biotics are (and I am of course as “pro” them as Shelley is) will do us no good.

So what’s the parable in all of this?

Health, of course, is more than supplements. The Bible contains a surprising number of health principles which, if followed and not allowed to slip from our reach like what was in this capsule, will strengthen us. Check out the link just below:

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

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, August 20, 2026

This particular flight was supposed to be during the day, but with delays it ended up coming in at night.

When I see lights at night, it brings up many different thoughts. One idea is that even in a dark world, people can live with light from electricity and light that comes from God.

A Bible verse I like reminds us of where life comes from.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1 John 5:11

We can trust that God gives us life. Because of this we can share the gospel of grace and love with those around us.

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, August 19, 2026

When I saw this dahlia in our garden, I instantly thought it looked as though light purple brushstrokes had been painted across its white petals. You can almost see the streaks left behind, like a paintbrush running low on paint or gliding over a textured surface.

Of course, flowers do not get painted. Their colors and patterns occur naturally.

Or do they?

Perhaps the “brushstrokes” we see were not added after the bloom opened. These remarkable patterns were created long before the flower ever emerged. They were woven into its very design, at the DNA level. No paintbrush touched these petals, yet the brushstrokes are real all the same.

To create the colors, patterns, and structure of this flower, growing from an underground storage root known as a tuber, requires something far more extraordinary than an artist merely waving a brush. This beauty points to the work of a true Master. In this case, the Master.

God delights in His creation, both great and small. He knew the joy that one simple purple-and-white dahlia could bring to another part of His creation – US. He designed these brushstrokes, these patterns, and these colors as a reflection of His creativity and artistry.

I am grateful for the beauty and variety woven throughout the natural world. To me, they reveal glimpses of light even when this world can seem filled with darkness. That light points to the hope of something greater, something better, a paradise yet to come.

I cannot wait to see what our creative Master has prepared for us when we finally arrive Home.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands”
Psalm 19:1

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, August 18, 2026

An unusual and less than common wildflower, Pterospora, is commonly known as Pinedrops or Woodland Pinedrops.  Its common name reflects the fact that it is most frequently found in coniferous forests, especially those containing pine trees, while the “drops” part of the name is a reference to the small, urn-shaped flowers that hang down from an unbranched stem.

Unlike most plants, Pinedrops produce little or no chlorophyll and therefore are not green and do not conduct photosynthesis.  Leaves, where photosynthesis takes place in most plants, are absent or reduced to scale-like structures found mostly on the lower stem.  Instead, they rely on a mycorrhizal fungus, closely associated with pine trees, for nutrients.  Its stems are noticeably hairy and sticky to the touch which enables it to trap small insects.  Enzymes then break these insects down which helps provide nitrogen to the plant.

If plants could reason it would be easy to see why Pinedrops might be tempted to complain that they were not treated fairly and therefore unable to make it in a hostile world.  But the truth is, they have been given all they need to survive, even if it is done differently than in other plants.  Paul reminds us of how much more that is true for you and me.  “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19 ESV)

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Sunday and Monday, August 16 and 17, 2026

Sunday morning during a mile-long walk through our neighborhood I spotted this Chevy Silverado pickup with the word HESED as its license plate “number.” It’s a Hebrew word often used in the Old Testament to give details about God’s love. In the Wikipedia entry below, you’ll see the different ways it has been translated.

From the Wikipedia entry on chesed (also spelled hesed):

“[Hesed] occurs 248 times in the Hebrew Bible. In the majority of cases (149 times), the (KJV) translation is mercy, following the Septuagint (LXX) eleos. Less frequent translations are: kindness (40 times), lovingkindness (30 times), goodness (12 times), kindly (five times), merciful (four times), favour (three times) and good, goodliness, pity (once each). Only two instances of the noun in its negative sense are in the text, translated reproach in Proverbs 14:34, and wicked thing in Leviticus 20:17.”

As you can see above, “mercy” is the way hesed has been most often translated, at least in the King James Version. Click the link below for three Bible passages where God’s mercy is described.

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