Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, January 7, 2026

If you read my last blog from a week ago, you might have noticed that I titled it “Fresh Start”, so this newest edition’s title isn’t too far off from the last. Am I running out of themes, ideas, or words? No, this particular similarity was intentional. Here’s why.

If you haven’t noticed, around this time of year, at least for the first couple weeks of January, you hear a lot about new starts, new beginnings, new goals, etc. Slowly, we see those “calls to action” disappear from the spotlight, and things go back to normal.

The beauty of God’s love and acceptance has nothing to do with the time of the year. He doesn’t forgive us ONLY during the first week of January. He doesn’t give us the opportunity to have a clean slate ONLY in the first month of the new year. No. God gives those same chances, those same do-overs, every time we genuinely ask.

This image was taken a couple days ago, at sunrise, just as the sun was peeking over the Cascade mountains, painting the morning clouds with rays of red and orange hues. It’s a new morning, a fresh start, and a new beginning.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

What a marvelous and loving God we serve. Embrace His gift to us — forgiveness and redemption — each and every day.

Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, January 6, 2026

There are those among us who feel it is their life’s calling to bring about change. They devote long hours to intensive study of the Scriptures; they employ the soundest hermeneutical principles and exercise the most rigorous tenets of logic to firmly establish their position. They are right. Strangely enough, they have their mirror image representing the opposing side, those who believe it is incumbent upon them to protect the established truth from being eroded away by creeping relativism at all costs. They employ the same sacred writings, and display the same devotion to their divinely appointed task.

Should we go back just a few years, everyone would have agreed what we have shown here is the image of a Canada Goose. But things have changed. Today, those in the know would identify it as a Cackling Goose. True, it still has the identifying black head and neck of the Canada with the accompanying white chinstrap, but its overall size is more diminutive and its voice is higher. They were classified as a single species until 2004 with a variety of subspecies. Today, based upon genetic differences, there are five regional subspecies of Cackling alone.

The question remains: Does it really make any difference? The answer depends upon who you’re asking. To the taxonomist whose mission it is to add clarity and definition to the subject one would get a resounding “yes”! For listers, like myself, it provides an opportunity to darken in another square on the checklist. But to the geese? Probably not a feather. They continue being the geese they always were, and happy to do so.

Photo ©2008 and Commentary ©2025 by Chuck Davis
Monday, January 5, 2026

The image for today’s photo parable displays a rustic bridge crossing Bear Creek. on the Bare Mountain Trail. The summit of Bare Mountain protects the remnants of a long-removed Forest Service Fire Lookout. The history of the area below Bare Mountain and the head of Bear Creek is rooted in early Washington State mining, with a series of mines known as the Bear Basin Mines. The mining efforts focused on a polymetallic vein deposit offering gold, silver, copper, and zinc. The bridge in today’s photo was originally built and maintained as a valuable connection to the minerals that lay hidden in the backcountry and are now located within the area known as the Alpine Lakes wilderness.

In the Bible, bridges are used metaphorically to represent the need for building and maintaining connections between God and humankind. Ultimately, God sent his Son, Jesus to build/become the bridge that reconnects us to God’s original plan for us. “A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it” (Isaiah 35:8 NASB).

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ (Luke 16:26, KJV).

A skeptic might read these verses and lose heart, thinking that the gulf is too wide, the bridge is too narrow, but Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6 NIV). When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Just as the men who built a bridge over Bear Creek to get to the valuable minerals of the Bear Basin Mines, God, desiring to reach his most valued possessions, His sons, and daughters, built a bridge to provide a way. May the next bridge you cross remind you of Jesus, the bridge that connects humanity to eternity.

Photo and Commentary (c)2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, January 4, 2026

READ, say the rocks outside the Anacortes, Washington Public Library. Are they commanding or inviting?

I’ve always seen it as an invitation, because I love to read. My parents and my two older sisters were always reading, so it seemed natural to aspire to do the same, as soon as I could get the hang of it.

But there are so many reasons why people don’t see READ as a friendly invitation. There are a myriad of difficulties that can make it challenging and frustrating for people to read.

And there are other people who just have so many other talents and interests that they don’t make time to literally focus on reading. At least not reading written material.

What other reading material is there, you may ask. I’m thinking of a friend who is quite capable of reading but not all that interested in doing so, as far as books go. Yet she excels in reading people – paying attention to them, catching on to what they’re saying and what they’re meaning, responding to them.

And yes, this reminds me of Jesus. He was well read in the Scriptures (home schooled by Mary, not taught in the rabbinic schools) and retained what He read. When the devil tempted Him after He had fasted for forty days in the wilderness and was thus at a low point, He met the devil’s words with the Word. “It is written . . .” The devil left. Unfortunately, only to regroup:

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. (Luke 4:13 NKJV)

And soon thereafter, reading got Jesus into trouble. Big trouble.

He returns to Galilee, teaches in the synagogues, “being glorified by all.” He travels back home to Nazareth, goes to synagogue on the Sabbath day, and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He finds and reads the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
(Luke 4:18 -19)

So far, so good. Everyone is listening intently. But then Jesus comments on what He has read to them, and the people “were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.” (Luke 4:28b-30)

Because He spent many nights in prayer to His Father, He could read the hearts and minds of the people who surrounded Him and followed Him. He encouraged those who were genuinely seeking truth, and challenged those who were hanging on His words in order to use them against Him.

I find the following conversation to be one of the most poignant encounters Jesus has:

Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”

And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”

Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”

But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
(Mark 10:17;22)

Jesus looked at him, loved him, read his heart and knew what he needed most . . . but this nameless man who has gone down in history as “the rich young ruler” was so possessed by his possessions that he walked away from the One who loved him most.

As we launch out into a new week in this fresh new year, I’m asking the Holy Spirit to help me read the Word with understanding, and respond with obedience and trust. I’m also asking for help in reading people well, so that I can be a standby-er rather than a bystander.

Happy, Healthy, Hope-filled New Year to You and Yours!

Photo and Commentary (c)2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, January 3, 2026

The day after Christmas I was taking my usual after-breakfast walk when I spotted this beautiful red Toyota. But I’d never seen it colorfully festooned with yellow spurts.

I studied it carefully. Was it art? After all, two blocks away I once saw a little Cooper Mini carefully painted, front-to back, with real artists’ paint. It looked beautiful. But if the above automobile was an art project, I realized that I would have to do a great deal of study on the topic of abstract art before I might be able to discern a “message” in it.

Finally, my curiosity got the better of me. I reached out a finger, captured some of the yellow on it, and tasted it. Sure enough, it was mustard. And then I saw the yellow splotches on the curb. Somebody had pulled an after-Christmas prank.

The next morning the car wasn’t there. Instead, it was parked safely up in the driveway, and a lot of water droplets on its hood may have indicated that the owner had sloshed off all of the yellow that very morning.

James 1:27 boils true religion down into two essentials. “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this,” he says, “to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

That’s what this car owner did. Spots – however sidesplittingly funny the applier may have thought them — don’t belong on a car somebody else owns. (Would mustard cause problems to the paint?) The owner didn’t delay, but scrubbed those spots off.

God is always willing to forgive us our sins and eradicate our “spots.” To learn more, click the link just below:

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

Photo ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, January 2, 2026

On a corner of the Renton housing development where Shelley and I live there’s a house whose owners go to a great deal of working putting up homemade Christmas décor. Shelley and I always consider the Christmas season officially kicked off when those decorations appear.

A few days back I was walking past this home, looking with benign pleasure on the decorations, I glanced down and spotted this zip tie on the sidewalk. Thinking I might be able to use it in one of these blogs, I snapped its picture, and you see it above.

The more I mulled over that zip tie, the more significant it became. A couple of days later I picked it up and took it home with me.

What’s so important about this zip tie? For one thing, zip ties are tough. They’re designed to keep things captive. (I have a couple of bigger zip ties holding part of my car fender so it doesn’t catch the wind!)

Also, zip ties can only tighten. They can’t loosen. You can’t make a zip tie go backwards, because of the one-way teeth along the strip that feeds through the square slot.

One more fact. There’s only one way you can release the “captive” from this tie – get a heavy-duty pair of scissors, or a sharp knife, and cut it loose. This is what happened here. I have no clue as to what was held captive, but a “higher power” had to intervene!

You know where I’m going with this, right? Sure you do. Those Christmas decorations, and many others through our neighborhood, glow encouragingly to remind us that Jesus was born into a sin-trapped world to cut us free with His death.

To review how this has happened, click the link just below:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/salvation

Photo ©2025 by Darren Milam
Wednesday and Thursday, December 31, 2025 and January 1, 2026

As most of you read this, it’s December 31st—the very last day of 2025. New Year’s Eve. In just a few hours, we’ll turn the page and step into 2026.

This past year, I was fortunate enough to travel more than usual. One of those adventures took us through several beautiful corners of Switzerland. The photo you see was captured in the town of Grindelwald, looking up toward three iconic peaks of the Swiss Alps: the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau. The mountain glowing in the morning sun is the Monch, rising proudly to about 13,500 feet.

When we arrived the night before, every peak was swallowed in clouds—completely hidden from view. But the next morning, just as the first light began to spill over the horizon, the clouds parted. And within moments, this is what appeared.

It felt as though the heavens had opened just to reveal these mountains in all their glory. In that moment, it reminded me of fresh starts—of how quickly a new beginning can emerge once the clouds clear.

You, too, have that same opportunity. A new year. A clean slate. A chance to begin again. And God stands ready to leave 2025 behind with you and walk beside you—every day—as 2026 begins.