Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, August 30, 2024

This past Monday morning in a walk in our neighborhood, I noticed an unusual dark streak in the clouds. For a moment I was puzzled, but then noticed the jet contrail to the left, and also the sun, which is farther to the left out of the photo. The sun was shining on the contrail, and the contrail was casting its shadow on the clouds.

It was 10 a.m., which means the sun was fairly high in the sky. I know that jet airliners normally cruise at roughly 30,000 feet. A quick bit of online research tells me that contrails form at these same altitudes if conditions are right.

So what we have here is a contrail, high enough to cast a shadow on clouds which are far lower in altitude. And this is possible because the sun itself is much higher—93 million miles out.

And can you spot another contrail, a needle-thin one in the lower half of the photo, intersecting a couple of clouds? This one must be very recent, and hasn’t had the time to widen out the way the one on the left has.

Okay. What makes this a devotional photo parable? I’ve called this blog “Influence.” The jet on the left is long gone, but it has left its contrail, which has gradually widened out, leaving a dark shadow on the clouds.

It’s the same way with our influence. Think back on the people in your life. Some were kind and generous, even joyous, and didn’t block the sun at all, but glowed with happiness. Others, wherever they went, left behind them a murky trail of anger and cynicism, which managed to poison many relationships.

What kind of trail do you want to leave behind you? A joyful one, right? For three Bible passages on joy, click the link just below:

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

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, August 29, 2024

This picture interested me not because of the sea anemones in the tide pool but because of the people crowding around to look.

The granddaughter is exercising healthy caution upon encountering a tide pool for the first time. Meanwhile she watches curiously as different things are pointed out in the pool. It is a supportive environment as they examine an underwater environment.

It seems like that is how God wants us to feel as we learn about what is expected of us. God provided a supportive environment by sending his son.

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:29

God did not take us out of our environment where we need to make our own choices. But Jesus provides hope and a model. When we believe in Jesus we will listen to his words and follow his commands. In other words, Jesus gives us support and all the information we need to know about what is expected of us.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, August 28, 2024

In a recent entry, I mentioned the weather we had and how it was unusual for the time of year. There was heavy rain and wind. During a visit to the garden, between downpours, I found this little friend hiding in a single petal “tube” of this dahlia bloom. There was shelter from the elements and he (guessing on pronoun) was tucked away. Eventually I found him wandering around, on the other dahlia plants. Maybe he was checking for food options, or larger shelter accommodations. Either way, he was safe and sound after the storm had passed.

In Isaiah 4, the prophet was providing a vision to Jerusalem. A vision of how God was going to cleanse, shelter and protect.

Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

We certainly live in a stormy world and knowing God has shelter for us, is a belief to hang onto. Like our little amphibian friend, cling to the faith that God has His protective hands over our heads – keeping us safe and dry (mostly). When the clouds and rain subside, we have the faith we are free to move about – going about our daily lives. We can do these things because of the promises we have with our Maker. Thank you, Lord!

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, August 27, 2024

As far back as grade school I can remember being told that the Monarch butterfly, with which we were all familiar, had a double that mimicked the appearance of the well-known species. We knew this was true because it was pictured right there in our Christian textbooks.

What we and apparently our teacher failed to recognize was that this was based upon evolutionary logic, which employed something known as Batesian mimicry. In this model a palatable species would develop into looking like a toxic species in order to avoid predation. It was assumed that once a bird took a bite of a nasty tasting Monarch, it would avoid the similar appearing Viceroy. It made perfect sense, even though the evolutionary overtones were lost on us.

Ah, but times have changed. This long-accepted example has now been rejected as invalid by many entomologists. It is true that the Monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed which gives them a bitter taste, but the Viceroy feeds on members of the willow family from which they get salicylic acid which also makes them bitter. Experiments have been done with both, where the wings were removed, and birds found both species to be just as unpalatable.

Does this prove that creationists have it right? Of course not. What it should tell those of us who are creationists is that we should think carefully about what underlying principles we are asked to accept when “truths” are proposed. It should also encourage us to test for ourselves to determine if the evidence holds up under careful examination. Good advice whether one is in the classroom or walking the streets of life.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Cheryl Boardman
Monday, August 26, 2024

This photo was taken in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, on a family trip ten years ago. This is an iconic scene on Maligne (last part pronounced as lean) Lake. I used to think the view was of an island before I saw it for myself but it’s actually a little peninsula. You can take a boat to reach a landing where you have very little time to stand at the view point before you have to get back on the boat to go back.

We had a nice time in Jasper National Park and had lunch in the town of Jasper. Unfortunately, about 1/3 of the town was razed in a wildfire this year. Tourists and residents were evacuated with limited escape routes prior to the fire. As far as I know, there was no loss of life, thankfully.

It’s really strange to think that a place that you visited and enjoyed and have fond memories of is no longer the same and may never be the same as it was again. I’m sure homes and businesses will be rebuilt but it will be different.

Change is inevitable in this life. We need to remember that we can’t necessarily adjust to some of the changes that come up by ourselves but we need to remember that God is always faithful.

Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the ocean depths.
You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.
How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter
in the shadow of your wings.
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your river of delights.
For you are the fountain of life,
the light by which we see.
Psalm 36:5-9 (NLT)

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, August 25, 2024

Here, for your viewing and linguistic pleasure, is a pair of pears that don’t need to be pared before eating. (My husband, a former college English teacher, always comforts adults learning English as a second or third language with his belief that “English is a crazy language.”)

So, of this trio of words, which shows up most often in our Bibles? I’m thinking it has to be pair. Maybe not the word itself, but what it represents – two of something.

When you think of Biblical pairs, what comes to mind? (I’ll tell you last what I thought of first, and it was because of a song).

My second thought was all those animals lining up two by two to enter Noah’s ark. (Perhaps it should more accurately be called God’s ark, since He designed and gave the blueprints and all the instructions to Noah. But the latter was the general contractor and day laborer, so I’m OK with calling it his ark, too.)

I remember my surprise when I read that not all of the animals entered the ark as pairs; some went in by sevens, as God directed:

You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. (Genesis 7:2, 3 NKJV)

The next pairs I thought of were all the people that come to mind because they are linked together in Bible stories: David and Goliath, Mary and Joseph, Peter and John, Ruth and Naomi, Cain and Abel, Aquila and Priscilla, Jacob and Esau, Mary and Martha . . .

And the pair I thought of first, Adam and Eve. They are, of course, the first human pair mentioned in the Bible, created by the hand of God, but I wasn’t thinking chronologically when I thought of them. It was a snippet of song that started playing in my head:

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win,
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

You may recognize these words and be singing along with them. They’re from the first verse of “The Love of God,” music and lyrics by Frederick Martin Lehman. I remember sitting in church as a child, my imagination always stirred up by the last verse:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

That sounded like a lot of love to me! I still had (and have) a lot to learn (and unlearn) about God’s character, but what a wonderful song for a child to hear early on.

And that brings me to the most amazing, most tender, most tremendous pair of all – God and me! God and you! Just us two!

We read about Jesus and Nicodemus, in deep conversation late at night; of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, who is entrusted with the revelation that He is the Messiah; Jesus and Zacchaeus, who is told to climb down from his tree perch because Jesus is inviting Himself to his house for dinner; and Jesus and the thief crucified next to Him, who pleads for and receives instant, complete forgiveness.

I read about Jesus dealing with all these people, and more, as individuals. Just the two of them. He didn’t insist on a crowd gathering before He’d share precious truth, and offer salvation. Jesus and __________. Enter any name there, but be sure to enter yours first of all, so you can remember with assurance that Jesus died so that you and He could be a pair, forever.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, August 24, 2024

Thursday in a Federal Way parking lot I noticed this imposing white pickup (whose license plate I have blotted out for privacy’s sake). At first glance its size impressed and even intimidated me a bit. After all, huge vehicles like this are sometimes adorned with bumper stickers which are vulgar and even profane, or in-your-face taunts of alternative truck brands.

I didn’t stroll around to see if this beast’s rear bumper sported such stickers, mainly because of the benign and emphatically unmistakable message lettered on the front: “Stay Humble and Kind.” These words themselves were even chosen with kindness. Notice that it doesn’t say Become Humble and Kind, but Stay that way. It gave the viewer (me) the benefit of the doubt, and generously assumed that I was already good-hearted.

Nowadays it seems that people are too scared to be kind, too fearful to let their front “grills” portray humility and graciousness up front, first thing. But the Bible insists that we need to partake of this truck-owner’s spirit. You’ll find three Bible texts that remind you of this, if you click this link:

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