Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, January 16, 2026

If you’re reading this, and you’re a Seattle Seahawks football fan, it would be a definite no-brainer to ask you if you’re aware of the Big Game happening Saturday night. (Those of us who are devout seventh-day Sabbath-keepers are delighted that the kickoff will happen probably 20 minutes past sundown!)

Several people who live in our neighborhood aren’t letting this event pass by without some symbolism. Thanks to advancing Christmas-light technology, I get the impression that exterior illumination can be customized with appropriate color changes.

However, sometimes the messages get mixed. In the photo above, the viewer is not entirely clear what is being signaled. The under-the-eaves lights are indeed blue with a hint of green (the Seahawks’ colors), but there’s still a Christmas wreath on the door, as well as a lit Christmas tree visible through the living room window. And the silhouette in the window above the door is actually a female department-store dummy, dressed in what looks like Seattle Kraken (ice hockey) gear.

However, another neighbor has stripped away all symbolic non-essentials and has presented us with a truly “cheer-able” display:

These two photos remind me how important it is to communicate clearly what we believe about our Creator. To learn or review some Bible specifics about this, click the link just below.

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/christian-lifestyle

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by  Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, January 15, 2026

Watching this tree service worker high in a tree made me think about how much we trust things in our daily lives. This person trusts the bucket lift to get him unnaturally high up to do his work.

It makes me think about trusting in God. Can we trust a little or a lot?

For the king trusts in the Lord;
    through the unfailing love of the Most High
    he will not be shaken.
Psalm 21:7

We can learn from other people’s examples. I like this verse because it talks about trusting in God’s love.

As with trusting anything, we can approach it with thoughtfulness and care. The tree service worker uses his equipment carefully. In the same way we can study God’s word to understand his love and care. With the right kind of trust, God gives us the ability to do more good things than we could do on our own.

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, January 14, 2026

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit Granite Falls—the actual falls, not just the town here in Washington. As you can see in the image, days of heavy rain had sent a surge of runoff down from the mountains, turning the river into a thunderous, churning force. Even in the still photo, you can see the mist spraying into the air, as the river flows over the rocks, gathering momentum, and picking up speed with every descent.

I’ve always been fascinated by water. The endless forms it can take, sometimes a quiet pool, other times a roaring waterfall. It can fall from the sky as a perfectly sculpted snowflake or wander through a forest as a babbling brook. Water can be molded into various shapes and sizes. It can also be powerful enough to carve canyons and move mountains. It can be soothing and calm as well as driving and forceful. Water shifts, adapts, shapes, and transforms.

Water reminds me of the way God works in our lives. At times His presence is calm and comforting, like a quiet stream that refreshes the soul. Other times, His movement is powerful – reshaping us, redirecting us, and carving us to be who we need to be. Just as the river flows from a higher place, God’s guidance and strength pour into our lives from above, sometimes gently, sometimes powerfully, but always with purpose.

I pray we all ask, daily, for God to work in our lives. Just like the river flows, He can flow right into each one of us and change us for the better.

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Over the years courtship and marriage have taken a wide variety of twists and turns.  What is practiced today certainly may not have been what was customary in ages past.  But in each case, there are certain rituals or customs which carry meaning for the individuals involved. Do we really understand the practice of levirate where a brother was required to marry his brother’s widow as described in Genesis 38:7-11?  And what about buying yourself a wife as portrayed in Hosea 3:2?  And can any of us relate to David’s contribution of one hundred Philistine foreskins to redeem his wife? (2 Samuel 3:14)  These actions seem far away and distant to us today, yet clearly had meaning for those involved.

Let’s try a contemporary example, but one from nature rather than from the human side of things.  The Lark Sparrow is a rather colorful sparrow that lives in open, dry woodlands, or, at the edge of such.  It walks, rather than hops to feed on seeds and insects along the ground.  That is, until courtship time.  He then hops, instead of walks, toward the light in his eye.  He will crouch while holding his tail at a 45 degree angle from the ground, and at just the right moment, presents her with a small twig.

Ladies today may not be impressed with such behavior, but the wise man will find himself hopping, and for some unfathomable reason, holding little twigs in his hands when the right one comes along.

(C)2008 CHARLES W DAVIS 425-415-8316

Photo ©2008 and Commentary ©2026 by Chuck Davis
Monday, January 12, 2026

The image for today’s photo parable comes to us from the Oregon Coast near Taft, which is closely associated with Lincoln City. The peaceful waters of the Siletz Bay remind me of the importance of having a safe place to shelter during a time of storm.

In the Bible, bridges are used metaphorically to represent the need for building and maintaining connections between God and humankind. Ultimately, God sent his Son, Jesus to build/become the bridge that reconnects us to God’s original plan for us. “A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it” (Isaiah 35:8 NASB).

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ (Luke 16:26, KJV).

A skeptic might read these verses and lose heart, thinking that the gulf is too wide, the bridge is too narrow, but Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6 NIV). When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Just as the men who built a bridge over Bear Creek to get to the valuable minerals of the Bear Basin Mines, God, desiring to reach his most valued possessions, His sons, and daughters, built a bridge to provide a way. May the next bridge you cross remind you of Jesus, the bridge that connects humanity to eternity.

The most famous verse about God being our shelter is Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble,” highlighting Him as a safe haven in crises. Other key verses include Psalm 91:2, which calls Him “my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust,” and Psalm 18:2, where David declares, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer”.

Key Verses for “God is our shelter”:

• Psalm 46:1 (NIV): “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble”.
• Psalm 91:2 (NIV): “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust'”.
• Psalm 18:2 (ESV): “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold”.
• Psalm 62:8 (ESV): “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us”.

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath and Sunday, January 10 and 11, 2026

This is the ballot box in front of the Fairwood King County Library. When election time draws near, this is where Shelley and I deposit our ballots. We’re not super-early voters, but we do like to get our ballots in well before the deadline on Election Day.

And we know that if we don’t insert our ballots through the slot before (I think) 8 p.m. that evening, someone will have closed that little red “door of probation” and screwed it firmly shut. At that point, the election is done at this box. No more chance to register our decisions.

The Bible clearly tells us that even though God is longsuffering and patient, there will come a time when earth’s history will be wrapped up. An angel solemnly tells John the Revelator about this moment:

“He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” Revelation 22:11 (NKJV)

And in the very next verse, Jesus Himself chimes in:

“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. (verse 12)

Has this moment arrived? No. But one day it will. To find some encouraging news about God’s judgment, including how to emerge from it safely, click the link just below.

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

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, January 9, 2026

This past Thursday, a gloomy and sprinkly one in the area where we live, made going to our local library very attractive. I drove there to work on my sermon, but a whole lot of other people had driven there too.

This meant that I couldn’t park my car in the lot segments closest to the library, but had to nose my car up against a woven wire fence which surrounds a water-pipeline right-of-way which transfers water from the Lake Youngs reservoir to Seattle.

Once I was done at the library I returned to my car, and this is what I saw through the windshield – a handsome deer with a rack of antlers. Out of sight to the left was another one just like him.

This got me thinking about the difference between our library and the real world. Our library is top-of-the-line, recently renovated and filled with all sorts of resource materials about animals and anything else you can think of. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can order from an entire network of King County libraries all over the area.

But you can’t wander among the shelves and see real nature in all its glory. To do that, you have to head outdoors, tiptoe over to the fence, and hope you’ll see just a bit of Eden.

God created these wonderful creatures and placed them in a Garden, and had no original need to fence them off from us. And one day – and it doesn’t seem it’ll be too long from now – He will create a new planet for us.

Want to learn – or review – what the Bible says about heaven? Click the link just below:

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