Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, November 28, 2025

This past Tuesday I stopped by Third Place Books, a combination bookstore and community center in Lake Forest Park. I’d brought along my sermon notebook, and I had settled down to do some work on the outline, when a tall young man, who looked like a college student, drifted over and set down his water bottle and a thick paperback. He then disappeared, maybe in search of food at one of the eateries in the building.

As you can see in the above photo, the book is Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the famous Russian writer’s story about the French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic era. I was immediately curious about why this man was reading it. Was it an assignment for a history or literature class? Had a friend recommended it?

As it turns out, I never saw the man or the book again. I headed over to the bookstore section in a little while, and when I came back, the book, the bottle, and then man were nowhere to be seen.

The subject of war and peace – whether cast in Russian terms or otherwise – has fascinated humanity for thousands of years. Why is evil present? Can evil be overcome, and if so, how and when? And by whom?

Click the link just below. It gives some Bible clues about this under the interesting heading,
“Why didn’t God kill or destroy Satan?”

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/why-didnt-god-destroy-satan

Photo ©2025 by Amber Jurgensen
Commentary ©2025 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, November 27, 2025

My wife and I stopped just up the street from our house for her to catch this candid photo of two Elk. It is a bit rare to spot these large animals in a residential neighborhood, so she was excited to get a little photographic evidence. One tell-tale feature of these Elk is their lighter colored backsides.

It made me think about these large animals living free in the woods even amid dangers posed by neighborhood fences, dogs, and other obstacles. What does it mean for people to be free? I’m sure there are many definitions.

One definition of freedom that stands out in my mind comes from these verses.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galations 5:22,23

When there is no law against something, then it means we are free to do it. We can go wild. Well maybe not exactly wild. But free in a natural state of being. Even though we don’t always achieve these goals, at least we can keep trying and trusting in Jesus to give us strength to be truly free.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Hopefully you read this blog’s title in your best owl voice. As you can see from the photo, it’s an owl—specifically, a Barred Owl. Don’t judge the image quality; it’s not great. I snapped it on my phone at dusk, aiming up at the branch where this beauty landed. That tree sits right in the middle of my backyard, so the owl was fairly close.

Why was it perched there? Because of our dog. How’s that, you ask? I let Taima—our 75 lb. Labrador—out for some yard time. I followed him outside, and within five seconds, Mr. (or Mrs.) Owl swooped down as if to snatch him up. It didn’t, of course. Instead, it veered off and settled on that branch, twisting its neck in those wild, almost full-circle rotations while keeping a sharp eye on Taima.

This isn’t the first time. A few times now, an owl—maybe this one, maybe a relative—has silently glided toward Taima, only to pull up at the last second. Ironically, Taima never notices. If the owl were big enough to pull off a snatch-and-grab, the dog wouldn’t know until it was too late.

Which makes me wonder: What about us? Do we see what is coming? Do we notice when sin is lurking nearby, waiting to strike? If not, how do we protect ourselves? Big questions—but the answer is simple: Jesus. Our daily walk with Him is the best protection against the evil around us. When we walk with our Savior, it doesn’t matter what’s hiding in the trees or swooping from above. Our Protector is with us, watching over us, waving off the harm that tries to close in.

I’m thankful for that walk and all it provides. I hope you have one too—with the only companion you truly need: Jesus. Amen.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Although the verbiage is a bit different than what we use today, an advertisement found in the November 21, 1863 edition of The Boston Herald promoted Thanksgiving in this way.

“Propelling for Turkey Day! All Aboard That’s Going! How Came You So?” That’s the same year that Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday, and yet, already the bird was tied to the day. It’s rather ironic that this American holiday became so closely associated with a bird named after a Middle Eastern nation, especially since the bird originally came from the Americas. But, when the Spanish first arrived in the New World, they already found Meleagris gallopavo domesticated. As plunder, they took the bird back home with them, and from there it was traded to England from which the Puritans came.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire was at its zenith in those days and many English speakers gave them credit by employing their name in recently introduced products. Maize was known as “Turkish wheat,” and pumpkins from the New World were called “Turkish cucumbers.” So maybe it isn’t surprising that the bird eventually became known simply as turkey. We even incorporated the bird’s name into expressions we use such as “talk turkey” and “quit cold turkey”.

While we here in America do have much to be thankful for, it would be presumptuous to assume we have a monopoly on reasons for gratitude. Several other countries also celebrate a day of thanksgiving as a public holiday. In others, while not formally recognized as an official day, it is still acknowledged. Perhaps the orthodox Protestant churches in the Netherlands understand it best. On the first Wednesday in November, they make it a point to go to church to thank the One who has given these good gifts.

Photo ©2004 and Commentary ©2025 by Chuck Davis
Monday, November 23, 2025

You will likely encounter the Canada Jay in the winter. They often appear to backcountry travelers during lunchtime on the snow. Formerly known as the Gray Jay, they have many other names as well. Camp Robber is probably the most accurate and descriptive. Seemingly unafraid of humans, they often perch on a hand to beg. Failing success in that way, an unwary traveler will likely lose the last bits of their sandwich to a darting aerial assault.

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus uses the birds to encourage us not to worry but to rely on God for our wellbeing.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-27 NIV)

Are you worried by life’s circumstances? Take courage! Like He does for the birds of the air, God will take care of you.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, November 23, 2025

As we traveled down our familiar trail on our morning walk last week, I suddenly saw what you see in my photo – gold-leafed trees bathed by the sun in the distance, with bare black bushes and trees close to us.

But here comes the photographer’s urgent refrain: You had to be there to really appreciate it. The photo does not do it justice. Those trees were gleaming gold, making me catch my breath with their beauty.

And a song started playing in my mind, a gospel song I’d often heard when I was growing up. This is the refrain I heard that morning:

O, we see the gleams of the golden morning,
Piercing through this night of gloom!
O, we see the gleams of the golden morning,
That will burst the tomb.*

I thought of a friend who is grieving the recent death of her father. I thought of friends struggling with life-altering illnesses. We have attended two memorial services this month. Gloom surrounds us, sometimes invades us.

How thankful we are for the gleams of God’s promises that He will come again, and restore what has been lost, mend what has been broken, say “Never more!” to pain, tears, sorrow, and death.

Here are the first and fourth stanzas that accompany the above refrain, elaborating on what makes the coming morning so golden:

The golden morning is fast approaching;
Jesus soon will come
To take his faithful and happy children
to their promised home.

The loved of earth who have long been parted,
Meet in that glad day;
The tears of those who are broken hearted
shall be wiped away.

During our worship services we have a time before prayer when people can briefly share how God has blessed them, and how they need His help. We call it “Celebrations and Concerns.” Now that this long-ago song has been playing in my mind, I know we could just as well call this time “Gleams and Glooms.”

Another gleam – and this is a huge one – is that we have God’s promise that we will never go through times of gloom on our own. We often hear one of His names spoken and sung during this holiday season – Emmanuel. God with us. Three small words that are golden, promising His presence always.

We pray for God to clear away any clutter, stop any static, so we can clearly hear Him and see Him active and involved in our lives, always present, always working for good.

Every year I appreciate how Thanksgiving is the best doorway into the true Christmas celebration. As we feast on any combination of food, family, friends, and faith this coming week, we give thanks for all the gleams God provides.

And suddenly another song flies into my head! This one a small chorus:

Some golden daybreak, Jesus will come!
Some golden daybreak, battles all won.
He’ll shout the victory,
Break through the blue,
Some golden daybreak,
For me, for you! **

*Author and composer S. J. Graham

**In searching for this chorus’ author, I discovered that Carl Blackmore wrote it, but later asked his pastor father to write verses to accompany it. Until this discovery, I had only heard it sung as a chorus. Writing blog posts can be very educational!

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, November 22, 2025

Farm kids like me were taught to drive earlier than city kids. I learned not from a driver’s ed class but from a nervous farmer-father whose already heavy worry-load would become super-crushing during the months after he’d taught me (often in a loud, tense voice) all he knew about motor vehicle operation and defensive driving.

A couple of weeks ago, on my usual post-breakfast walk of nearly a mile, a wave of nostalgia swept over me as I noticed these two cars parked beside a sidewalk. The street descends slightly at this point, toward the camera, and I saw that these vehicles’ drivers had both cranked the wheels into the curb, so that in case the brakes failed, the car would roll not out into the street but up and over the sidewalk toward the lawn.

I remembered my own dad sternly explaining this to me, and such was his earnestness that I have always done this, without fail. Even if there’s scarcely any slope at all, I crank the wheels. And if the slope goes up, I crank the wheels the other way.

Fear, of course, was what led Dad to be so paranoid. His fear arose directly from love – mainly love to me, but also a caring for anyone who might be in the path of a heedless and insufficiently respectful young Maylan. And fear, of course, is what drives our Heavenly Father to make as sure as we can that we’re prepared for a dangerous world.

The Bible has some sobering yet ultimately comforting truths about fear. At this link you’ll discover some of them.

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