Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Nowadays, when you take an image and you are posting it to your favorite social media location, you need to call out if you used a filter or not. Well, in both cases, no filter was used. Clearly, I understand how a camera (even the one on my phone) works and there is an element of filtering, but I did not manipulate the color or saturation, post image taking. The contrast and color of this bright and beautiful sunflower was all due to the “God filter.” What do I mean by that? God created the deep blue sky, you can see in the background. God created the vibrant oranges and yellows found in the petals. His filter is the only filter we need.

It is images like these that remind us of how our God, not only cares for His creations, but also wants us (humans) to enjoy each of the creations.

Most of you have heard the hymn (poem before the song) “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” by Cecil Frances Alexander (feel free to read all about her life and her incredible talents). As some of you know, she had a few more hymns (several hundred), but this is one of her most-known and it starts with:

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

The song was written in 1848, but the words couldn’t be truer today. We see the varying hues, the textures, the details, all through His filter. God has created – the bright and beautiful, the great and small, the wise and wonderful, He’s created them all.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Strange it is, the way we make associations. For example, orange and black are colors we often associate with Halloween. I suppose it’s reasonable since orange shows up in pumpkins and fall leaves around that time of year, but I’m not sure where to look for the inclusion of black in that palate. But there has to be more to the symbolism than just color connectedness. I can’t think of anyone who associates the orange and black orioles of the northern parts of North America with October 31, probably because these colorful birds have long before that headed southward to warmer climes so they aren’t around to watch the trick-or-treaters making their yearly rounds.

The male Orange Minivet sports similar colors in the tropical and subtropical forests of the Indian subcontinent, but somehow their demeanor doesn’t seem to align with the sinister either. Maybe their bouncing flight through the canopy of the forest just doesn’t seem to match up well with dismal thoughts of the underworld. Whatever the reason, even using its alternate name, the Flame Minivet, doesn’t seem to relegate it to ominous reminders of fire and brimstone. Its beauty and sociable behavior just paint too happy a picture to be demoted to the macabre.

Perhaps the biggest factor we bring to any association is our own outlook on life. At least that seems to be what Paul is inferring in Titus 1:15: “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.” (NIV) So, feel free to enjoy the almost endless palate of colors God has employed to paint our world.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Cheryl Boardman
Monday, October 28, 2024

I saw this fish years ago when I was at the Seattle Aquarium. I think it is a striped surfperch.

This fish was NOT part of the aquarium display, however. It was a wild fish that had somehow made its way up the fish ladder that was meant for salmon. Part of the fish ladder had a window so that people who were looking at the aquarium displays could see the salmon swimming up the fish ladder.

This small fish just looks totally lost and bewildered and like it was wondering how it got there and how it could get out of there and back into its familiar environment in Puget Sound!

Do you ever have those feelings of wondering how you got to where you are and what would be the best way to get out of the situation you find yourself in? I like these verses in Psalm 36:

God’s love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
Psalm 36:5-6 (The Message)

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, October 27, 2024

We’re going to a wedding. I’m looking forward to it.

I know the where and when and some of the who. Most importantly, I know the bride and groom and their families. I know a few of their guests; the rest of the guest list will be a surprise.

As I anticipate the wedding, I try to picture it. It’s an evening event, so I’m sure there will be lovely light. Candles, maybe? Lots of little twinkling fairy lights? There will be music, I know. Nothing sets a mood like music. There will be vows of love and loyalty, promises made, prayers offered over the couple.

After the wedding, the reception. There will be food. There will be speeches.

Most of all, there will be joy.

At every wedding I attend, I look back over my shoulder and I look ahead.

I look back to May 14, 1978, to our wedding. I love the photo of the two of us beginners, encircled by the protective, loving arms of Jesus.

I look ahead:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” (Revelation 19:6, 7 NIV)

We’re going to a wedding. I’m looking forward to it.

I know the where and some of the who, especially the Who. I know Jesus is the Lamb of God. I know He’s been waiting for the bride, His chosen people who have chosen to respond to His love and fully follow Him. I know some of the guests; the rest will be a surprise.

I like to picture it:

There will be light lovelier than our eyes have known on this sin-darkened planet, and music more glorious than our ears have ever heard. Vows of love and loyalty have already been pledged, and lived out, even through the most challenging circumstances.

The promise has been kept. Jesus has come again, and taken us Home.

There will be a wedding banquet.

Most of all, there will be joy.

Many years ago we received a postcard that urged us to “Save the Date!” I’d never seen a card like this and it slightly puzzled me. We already knew about my nephew’s upcoming wedding; he and his fiancée had even asked my husband to be their “marrying minister.”

So we were already saving the date. What puzzled me was this casual postcard, instead of the more formal wedding invitations I was accustomed to receiving.

I cautiously asked the mother of the groom, my sister, about this, and she assured me that invitations with further details were forthcoming. This postcard was a preliminary heads-up.

I’ve been saving the date for Jesus’ coming, and the wedding of the Lamb, for a long time now, without actually knowing the date. The Bible tells us signs that give us a literal heads up that we’re getting close.

When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28 NIV)

We’re going to a wedding. I’m looking forward to it.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, October 26, 2024

On the way back from our church retreat this past weekend near Anacortes, Washington, Shelley and I stopped at the tourist-friendly little town of La Conner. On the east side of Main Street, in the open air but covered with a well-built portico, is this cross-section of an old-growth tree. In 1958 it was rescued from being cut up into firewood, and was dated and put on display. Along the rings are mounted small labels telling what happened at various stages of its growth.

This tree began to grow in AD 1210, five years before the Magna Carta was signed. It was 23 years old when China first used gunpowder as a weapon, and 61 years old when Marco Polo began his 24-year journey through Asia. It was more than 200 years old when Gutenberg invented the printing press.

This second photo shows a view of the right-hand part of the tree-slice, with labels indicating when events happens. But notice something interesting. See all those white lines? The labels themselves are spread along the rings, but notice where their lines end up – mostly near the right-hand (or most recent) edge.

Examples of these near-the-edge events: Invention of the telephone (1876), invention of the light bulb (1879), Ford’s first gas-powered car (1896), Einstein first publishes the theory of relativity (1905), first TV station (1926), polio vaccine (1952).

As this tree’s flow of history shows, there’s been an incredible acceleration of knowledge in just the last couple of centuries, possibly in fulfillment of Daniel 12:4:

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

And the Bible gives many more signs that Jesus’ return is near. Read many of them at this link:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/signs-jesus-coming

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, October 25, 2024

I couldn’t help but grin, a couple of weeks ago, when I saw this sign. It’s one of several exhortations posted in the windows of an urgent-care clinic, designed to encourage the sufferer to take heart and enter that clinic for treatment.

Normally, of course, “You’ve got this!” is an uplifting sentiment: “You can do it! You’re more than equal to this challenge!” But my grin – which might even have morphed into a giggle – happened when I recast this sign into a mournful diagnosis: “The flu? COVID? Sciatica? Beri-beri? You’ve got this! And we can fix it!”

The Heavenly Physician, in the Bible, lays out a diagnosis more deadly than any other ailment on the planet: sin. “You’ve got this,” He reminds the entire human race. But all through Scripture, He lets us know that because of the sacrifice of His Son, God’s got this!

For a detailed series of Bible texts about sin and how it can be cured, click the link just below. Follow up with the links at the end as well for further information!

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

Photo ©2024 by Chelsea Jurgensen
Commentary ©2024 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, October 24, 2024

The mane on this Norwegian Fjord horse has been trimmed to reveal a pattern of dark hair sandwiched by light hair. These horses seem to be sturdy and fun to ride.

It makes me think of the Bible verse about our hair.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Luke 12:6-7

It seems like these verses use language even a child can understand. But if we really think about it, it offers wonderful assurance that God knows each of us and does not forget us. Taken in context with verses before these, we get the idea there is more than just our lives on earth. God has our eternal spiritual interests in mind.

Maybe we can be more like the Norwegian Fjord horses and be sturdy in our spiritual lives and fun to be around with the knowledge that God knows and cares about each one of us.