Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, June 2, 2026

There’s plenty of confusion to go around, but let’s start with the birds first.  What’s a warbler doing with a name like Louisiana Waterthrush anyway?  I thought warblers were supposed to be up in trees warbling, not down on the beach bopping up and down.  And to make matters worse, there’s another waterthrush that looks very much like the one from Louisiana and the two are hard to tell apart.  Fortunately, the Louisiana one likes to hang out along the edges of flowing streams while his counterpart prefers still waters and stagnant bogs.

And on the human side of things?  Our discussion will center around a man, or men, named Philip.  Actually there are four men in the Bible with that name, but we’ll consider just two of them.  There was Philip who was one of Christ’s twelve disciples.  Remember, he was the one who asked Christ to show them the Father.  He also calculated how much it would cost to feed the 5000 assembled to listen to what Christ had to say; a very down-to-earth guy.

The other Philip was one of the seven deacons appointed in the early church to assist with the distribution of goods – another practical guy.  We see him again, hitchhiking, when he was picked up by a fellow from Ethiopia.  Paul and others stayed at his house when passing through Caesarea later on in the story.  And it was this same Philip who met with Simon the Sorcerer and introduced him to Christ.  Philip’s example made a difference: “Even Simon himself became a believer and after his baptism  attached himself closely to Philip. (Acts 8:13 J.B. Phillips New Testament)  Philip practiced practical Christianity.

And is the waterthrush practical?  If its nest, which is placed along the bank of a river, is disturbed early on, she will fly off.  But after investing time in incubating the eggs, if a disturbance should occur, she will employ a distraction display to induce the intruder away from the nest.  Seems pretty practical to me.

Photo ©2011 and Commentary ©2026 by Chuck Davis
Monday, June 1, 2026

Today’s photo parable builds upon the series that I presented in May 2026. You may recall that last week’s photo was of the moon. It was taken from our campsite on Mt. Adams, shortly before I settled in for the night. I captured today’s image while still in my sleeping bag the next morning. Over the next few weeks, I plan to share more of the wonders of August 14, 2011.

The following verses begin to capture the feelings that arise when recalling the morning when I awoke to the beauty in this photo.

From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord’s name is to be praised (Psalm 113:3 KJV).

It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23 KJV).

Sunrise is a testament to the order that God set in motion on the first day. It proves His faithfulness:

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day (Genesis 1:4-5 KJV).

On this August day, God added color to the light.

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Sunday, May 31, 2026

I always grin, or get a good feeling, whenever I see an anthill like the one above in a sidewalk crack. I snapped its photo earlier this week.

I also find myself stunned by what needs to happen for these construction projects to appear. What causes the ants to sense an impending rainfall a few days in the future? What enables them to collaborate in unity with such patience and precision?

A day or two after I snapped this photo, a gentle misty rain did indeed fall, moistening these little hills into flat smudges of mud. But they did their work when it was needed.

Fortunately, the divine Designer of these ants has some encouragement for humans who are concerned about what lies ahead, and who want to be prepared. You’ll find a lot of it at the link just below:

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/help-bible-promises

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Friday and Sabbath, May 29 and 30, 2026

Yesterday afternoon Shelley and I were taking a brief late-afternoon walk when I glanced at the sky. Shelley said, “Didn’t your mom tell you once that those were tornado clouds?” “Right,” I said. “The ones that are lumpy underneath.”

But we weren’t worried, partly because we’ve often seen these clouds here in the Pacific Northwest, and never once (in our presence) has a tornado spiraled down from them.

However, one windy summer afternoon on the south edge of Redfield, South Dakota, my dad and sister and I were doing a cleanup job at a little fairgrounds. The county agricultural agent had stopped by to give us instructions. He pointed to the sky and said, “Tornado clouds. You’ve got to watch out.” The Dakota clouds looked more lumpy and menacing than the ones in my photo, and the wind was certainly picking up. I remember staring at a nearby woven-wire fence and deciding that if a tornado happened along, I would fall to the ground, roll up next to it, claw it tight with both hands and hope for the best.

As it turns out, a tornado did happen that South Dakota afternoon, about ten miles southwest of our farm, but we saw nothing more than cloud lumps. And yesterday afternoon, after a calm glance at the photo-clouds, Shelley and I meandered peacefully on our way, and even made a leisurely phone call as we walked.

Context is important, right? Lumpy clouds are lumpy clouds, and if they happen in August on the Great Plains, you do indeed have to be careful, especially if they show up in areas known as “tornado alleys.” But in the skies near Seattle, they’re mostly from a non-tornado cause.

So what’s the “parable point” here? You and I need to be such careful observers of context that we’re not panicked by what seems to be dangerous but is not. When Jesus described the events of the last days, He made sure to give context:

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6 NKJV)

In other words, don’t freeze in panic when a traumatic event happens. It’s literally, and most likely, “not the end of the world.”  Instead, keep an eye on what the Bible says about Jesus’ return. Make sure you know the context.

For a lot of detailed, context-providing prophecies about Jesus’ return, click the link below:

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

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, May 28, 2026

This prairie dog home caught my attention near a hotel. The stark comparison made me think about what it is we perceive God wants from us and what is really needed of us.

When we look at different activities that people take on in the name of religion, we see a lot of things that seem off target. Things like making religious-based laws that are seemingly good, but miss the spirit that Jesus conveyed. The pharisees of the Bible made plenty of hypocritical laws. Other things like focusing on our own perfection seem to direct our view in the wrong direction.

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Acts 20:24

Why are God’s grace and love so important? They direct us to forgive and avoid judgement. When we know that Jesus forgives us freely when we ask, it makes it so much easier to love him and others back out of our own free will. Not because we are forced.

Maybe focusing on the wrong things is like living in a hole in the ground with fear. Let’s embrace the free forgiveness from God and share that light with others.

On a recent flight from Seattle to Salt Lake City, I glanced out the small window and saw this scene. The plane had just risen above the cloud cover, with the sun beginning to set behind us. As you can see, or perhaps not see, the clouds stretched endlessly, covering everything below. There was nothing visible except layers of white and gray, masses of tiny water droplets.

In that moment, the lyrics to “Above All” (famously sung by artists like Michael W. Smith) came to mind:
Above all powers, above all kings, above all nature and all created things…

God is, in fact, above all things.

There I was, literally above the clouds, seemingly above everything, yet reminded that God is (rightly so) above all. That perspective was grounding and humbling at the same time.

I’m incredibly grateful for that realization. How else are we able to accomplish anything, truly anything, without our Creator? The short answer is: we’re not. We rely on Him for all things. We need to rely on Him.

The song goes on:
You took the fall and thought of me, above all.

Pause for a moment and let those words sink in.

Picture the scene, Jesus coming to our rescue in human form, ultimately giving His life on the cross. He took the fall that should have been ours. And in that defining moment, He thought of us, above all.

Thank you, God, for all that You do for me. Thank You for being above all, and still caring for me.

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, May 25, 2026

Hollywood seems to have a way of doing that, of causing you to turn around and take notice of that which you might otherwise have ignored.  Such was the case as we drove along a rural road in Utah.  A road sign proclaimed in bold letters, “Childhood home of Butch Cassidy”.  It’s doubtful the name would have prompted a response had Hollywood not capitalized on the romanticized version of train robber/bank robber, Robert Leroy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy.  But turn around we did since the absence of traffic allowed a leisurely U-turn.

The old farmhouse, restored by historical preservationists, differs little from others of the same era near Circleville, Utah where his Mormon parents raised him.  His early life appears to have been boringly uneventful, leaving home in his early teens to find work on several of the nearby ranches.  It’s strange to think how his life would have gone unnoticed except for the bad choices he made which resulted in the deaths of several law officers.

It’s easy to be lured by the thought that if you really want to be noticed then you’ve got to break a few rules.  Even our U-turn on that grassy stretch of highway seems to reinforce that idea.  But Solomon helps us put things into perspective: “Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.”  (Ecclesiastes 8:12 NIV)   And in the case of Butch, it’s quite likely that he did not live a long life but died a violent death in Bolivia so ensuring him a place as an infamous icon of the Wild West.