Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, November 21, 2025

On a post-breakfast stroll with Shelley this past Tuesday, I saw this little leaf poking through a crack in a board fence. Even though the ravages of autumn have started to cause a bit of discoloration, this leaf looks thoroughly healthy for its life-cycle.

I should have studied the crack more, or got a better photo angle, because it seems really tiny. Yet this leaf – separated from its companions as it is – is still alive. It’s been receiving nourishment the way any leaf does, through its stem. And the stem is connected to a branch on the other side, and the branch is attached to the tree trunk, which is connected to earth (maybe even a garden) on the other side, and has been drawing water from the ground and passing it along.

This little leaf gives me courage. Because you and I and every other human on this planet have been growing up outside the Garden of Eden. Yet we thrive physically, thanks to the generosity of our Creator, and spiritually if we allow Jesus’ Water of Life access to our hearts.

Have you been feeling lonely at all, maybe a bit like this leaf? The Bible has some encouraging things to say about this. Check out these five verses:

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

Photo ©2025 by Amber Jurgensen
Commentary ©2025 Russell Jurgensen
Wednesday, November 19, 2025

In this photo a great-grandaughter sticks close to her great-grandpa. No matter where he went, she stayed beside him, followed close behind, or rode on his lap.

It made me think about how families pass traditions and values on to their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. One of those things is knowledge of God. Actions of the great-grandpa long ago would have set a tone for love and respect that carried on.

Here are a couple verses I like that speak about generations.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100:5

For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.
Isaiah 51:8

We see that God’s salvation never changes. We also know that our actions now will influence those who come later, and sets a tone for how they understand God, and how they can learn to thrive with a healthy understanding.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, November 19, 2025

If you examine the first image, what do you see? To me, it appears to be strands of beads of some sort. Regardless of what you came up with, it’s based on this close-up, or a narrow focus.

Now, when we take a look at the wide focus (below), the more “zoomed out” view, we see that those “beads” are actually water droplets attached to spider’s web.

Life works the same way. There are moments when a narrow focus is essentially zeroing in on a specific task, reviewing an important document, or keeping a watchful eye on an active child. And there are times when widening your perspective matters more—navigating a busy highway, planning for your future, or making decisions that impact others.

Whatever the situation, whether you need sharp focus or a broader view, God is ready to help. In fact, He provides clarity even when we’re unsure which perspective is best. All we have to do is ask.

Just like these two images, we can either zoom in for laser precision or step back to see the bigger picture. Neither is inherently better—they’re both necessary at different times. What is critical is the ask we make to our heavenly Father – may He grant you the wisdom and guidance, to zoom in or zoom out.

Photo ©2009 and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Sunday, November 16, 2025

Conservation seemingly had no part in the vocabulary or thinking of most 19th century Americans. Almost limitless numbers of Passenger Pigeons were reduced to zero. Carolina Parakeets met with the same terminal fate. Extinction means exactly that, no second chances, no mulligans. But by the early 1900s some were beginning to recognize that man could make a difference by the way he perceived his responsibility to nature. Agencies were created, thus, in 1987 the smallest vireo in the United States was placed on the endangered species list. At that time there were only about 350 Black-capped Vireo known to exist and the path to extinction seemed to be a very real possibility.

Because this species is found only in the Hill Country of Texas, plus a very few sprinkled in parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, I had never seen one. This demanded a pilgrimage to the Edward Plateau. There, after considerable searching, we found our bird, one week after it was taken off the endangered species list. Of the 59 species that have been delisted since the act was created, seven have been removed because the species had recovered. This is one of those success stories where man’s efforts have made a measurable difference.

Although this passage wasn’t written with ecological concerns in mind, I don’t think we would be too far off to use it as a warning to use our resources responsibly. “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isaiah 24:5 NIV) It’s good to know that man cannot only destroy, but if he elects to do so, he can also choose to make a positive difference.

Photo ©2009 and Commentary ©2025 by Chuck Davis
Sunday, November 16, 2025

Many in the world today view the Bible as something other than the word of God. To them, the book of Genesis and its account of creation just cannot be true. The earth is billions of years old and natural selection and evolutionary processes gave us our world. Even accepting that God exists, it is too much of a stretch to believe that it all happened in just seven literal days. It cannot be true – my teacher says so.

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:7-10 KJV).

Job never went snorkeling on St. Maarten and likely never encountered a moray eel. This image demonstrates that even this “beast” of the sea declares the glory and handiwork of God.

All creation groans under the weight of sin, but immerse yourself in nature and you cannot fail to discover Him.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, November 16, 2025

It seemed a bit early. We ate our breakfast with a chainsaw snarling loudly somewhere nearby. When we headed out on our post-meal walk we discovered a man dismantling a tree in our next-door neighbors’ backyard.

When we returned home he was higher up in the tree, having trimmed branches below him, and I snapped the photo you see here. I wanted to stay and watch how he was going to finish his task, but he worked slowly and methodically and I had a to-do list beckoning. I reluctantly left him to his work, minus my camera and my curiosity. As I moved about the house during the next three hours, the noise continued off and on, so he must have been trimming more than one tree.

It seems a bit early for another kind of tree trimming, since we are only half-way through November, but last night as we drove through our neighborhood we saw a Christmas tree shining in a living room window.

I am susceptible to walking down memory lanes during the holidays, and the sight of that tree took me back to my childhood Christmases. My parents and two older sisters and I would trudge through snowy woods belonging to a family friend in order to find the best possible tree, bring it home, and rearrange all the living room furniture to give it pride of place.

After my father secured it in its base, and festooned it with our big multi-colored lights, he carefully positioned a dozen or so fragile ornaments that were his favorites. Only then did he allow the rest of us to trim the tree. The final touch was something that seems to have fallen out of favor in recent decades – tinsel. It was painstaking work, at least the way we did it. There was no thought of tossing the tinsel haphazardly on the branches; we draped it, strand by strand, so that the finishing touch was one of balanced beauty. (Since we were thrifty folk, it was even more tedious to untrim the tree, since that meant removing each strand of tinsel, gathering it together without tangling it, and storing it with the ornaments until next December. We recycled without knowing the word.)

And yes, all this makes me think of Jesus.

“ . . . [He] who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (I Peter 2:24 NKJV)

We were glad to see that our neighbors’ tree trimmer took no chances. He was wearing a hardhat, and boots with special grippers, and a safety harness. Every move he made was slow and deliberate, since missteps and accidents could be fatal.

In stark contrast, Jesus wore nothing and risked everything. He knew the consequences of the cross would be fatal. For him, that is; life-giving for us. The only “decoration” on His tree was His blood, staining the wood but gaining the victory.

A few of our neighbors are combining holidays on their front lawns. One in particular makes me shiver. A skeleton rising up twelve feet in the air has been joined by a large inflatable turkey. I’m waiting to see if they’ll clear the decks for Christmas, or simply add a Santa to the mix.

I’ve started combining holidays, too, though not on our front yard. I celebrate Christmas and Easter year round now. Jesus was born to die, but also to rise again, so that we, too, could rise to eternal life!

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, November 15, 2025

A couple of weeks ago I dropped by a favorite thrift store, headed to its office supplies section, and spotted the above glorious display. Ancient as they are, each of these machines was once received with gladness or relief by employees who’d previously had to do their work without them.

On the left is by far the oldest of the three, a Victor adding machine. You punched in numbers, you pulled the handle, and the machine stamped those numbers on a paper strip. The handle also advanced the paper so you could enter more numbers. When you were done, you did something with the buttons (I’ve never worked one of these, so I don’t know what), and the entire column would be magically added!

On the right you have a Tower manual typewriter, which used ink ribbons and your finger-muscles to type letters (and if you were sensible you used two sheets of paper with a “carbon” sheet between so you could keep a copy. This was before copier machines.)

And in the center is a handsome Smith-Corona electric typewriter, which did exactly what the Tower did but had a much lighter touch and a built in error-correction system. (What’s fascinating to note is that when I zoom in on the covers of both typewriters, the store is charging much more for the manual Tower — $199.99 – than the electric Smith-Corona — $42.99. “Antique value” at work!)

But what would be truly breathtaking to the original users of these machines is that I snapped these machines’ photo with a device which performs the function of all three – my smartphone — which I carry in my shirt pocket!

My Bible tells me that advanced knowledge is only one of several thrilling signs of Jesus’ return. To read about these signs directly from Scripture, click this link:

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/signs-times