Daily Photo Parable

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, May 17, 2024

During the first week in April, Shelley and I drove up to the town of Monroe, where I gave a series of chapel talks to students at an Adventist elementary school.

After each day’s talk was done, she and I explored some of the Monroe shops, including Main Street Books. What you see in the photo is the romance-novel section, or at least part of it. I got a huge kick out of how someone had adjusted this artists’ mannequin so that it seemed to be swooning—very fitting for the subject matter!

“Romance” is a genre (category) of novel with many devoted readers. And even the briefest online searches (like one I did a few minutes ago on “plot types for romance novels”) reveal that there are story lines that romance readers expect when they start to read. One writer (half-seriously) puts it this way: “Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. They like each other. There is conflict. The conflict is resolved. Everyone lives happily ever after.”

Anybody who’s read much in the Bible—especially in the smaller prophetic books like Hosea—has discovered that the Bible is a romance novel. But it is heartrending, very un-“lite” reading, because God is repeatedly rejected by His beloved people, who repeatedly commit spiritual adultery.

But even though His emotions are real and raw, His love never fails, and He finally wins back those who are willing to fall in love with Him again.

For a view into God’s heart and His eternal love, click this link:

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

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, May 16, 2024

I always have mixed feelings when viewing impressive structures like the Columbia Center in Seattle, pictured here. On the one hand, it seems to represent an excess of pride and wealth. At 76 stories with a height of 933 feet, it was for a while the tallest building on the west coast.

On the other hand, it is a place where people work, gather, and interact with each other. I wonder how many people on dates have gone to the observatory at 902 feet, which is higher than the Space Needle.

Maybe it isn’t for me to judge. It reminds me of these verses in one my favorite books in the Bible.

As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let your hands not be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.
Ecclesiastes 11:5,6

It seems to be better to do something than nothing. Even so, the next chapter reminds us that God will bring every deed into judgement.

Back to the picture, I see a human factor where people work, interact, and wonder.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, May 15, 2024

If you pay attention to any of the social media platforms, I am sure over the past few days you’ve seen many images (probably better than mine) of the recent Aurora borealis sighting in the US, as far south as Northern California. As you may know, visibility that far south is pretty remarkable, when most of the time the lights are visible in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and Canada. This sighting, last Friday, was a historic geomagnetic storm. I don’t claim to know the exact science behind this phenomenon, but I do know God allows for this incredible display of light and color — and that’s good enough for me.

In Genesis 1, we see the act of creation, and specifically the fourth day when God created light.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

God created light. God created the night from the day. He created the stars, the moon, the sun, and all we see (and can’t see). Take a moment to think about that. All that we see AND all that we can’t see, with our eyes. We see images from telescopes in space and there is so much out there. This vision (no filters used) of greens, purples, reds, and yellows wasn’t the “typical” moon rising or star gazing, no this was something special. The one image with a view straight up into the sky felt like we were looking up into Heaven. With all those colorful streaks, drawing your eyes to the center, it appeared to almost be a ‘gateway’.

God is magnificent and His creations never cease to amaze me. If we have the chance to see views like this on this lonely planet, what will it be like when we are far away from sin, and we can see all the things God has created we currently can’t see? I, for one, cannot wait to find out!

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, May 14, 2024

We’ve all heard the expression “the honeymoon’s over” as a reference to the solemn reality that day-to-day married life is often not the same as those first few glorious days after the “I do’s” have been said. It’s not that love isn’t present; it’s just that taking out the garbage doesn’t carry with it the same glamour as rice that’s being thrown.

We can find something we can bend into an equivalent model in the bird world. The Prairie Warbler is one of those colorful species concentrated in the southeastern portion of the United States. In spite of its name, it doesn’t inhabit prairies, but resides in brushy, open areas. There, it sings its two diverse songs, Type A and Type B. The first is composed of a series of long ascending buzzy notes while the second is pitched lower with even longer buzzy notes. Type A songs are sung primarily when the males first arrive to establish territory and attract mates. Type B songs predominate after the honeymoon is over and the males are fighting with other males they think might infringe upon their territory.

Perhaps these warblers, and more appropriately we, could benefit from the words found in Scripture emphasizing the importance of unity and singing the same song in concert. The first is found in Psalm 34:3 which says: “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” (NIV) And the second comes from Amos 3:3. “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” (NIV) While these verses are certainly applicable in a variety of situations outside of marriage, they just as obviously are needed after the honeymoon is over.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Cheryl Boardman
Monday, May 13, 2024

We all lead very busy lives and sometimes it helps if we just slow down a bit and appreciate how God is providing for us.

GOD, my shepherd!
I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.
Psalm 23:1-3 (The Message)

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, May 12, 2024

Every week my father, who was not a churchgoer, would welcome us home from church with the same question. Week after week, year after year.

“Well,” he would say, “did you win anything?”

As a child I would earnestly tell him that church wasn’t that kind of thing, where you won prizes. As a teenager I would usually just give him a hug and ignore the question. Once in a while I would try to explain church to him.

I was born on a Saturday and attended church the next Saturday, I’m told. I haven’t missed many Sabbaths since.

When a major earthquake hit Alaska on March 27, 1964, it was late on a Friday night. We were hundreds of miles from the epicenter and major damage, but my father’s brother and family lived in that area and we anxiously waited for word from them and got little sleep.

When I woke the next day I was astonished to find it was late morning and my mother had gone to church without me. In her kindness she had let me sleep. I felt off-kilter. Not as unsettling as an earthquake, but still an almost unheard of change in my schedule.

On this Mother’s Day I’ve been mulling over the many gifts my mother gave me. It makes me smile to think of them. The gift that shines brightly for me at the moment is that she cultivated in me the habit of going to church.

And now I know how I could have answered my father’s weekly question! Yes, I did win something at church! Here’s what and how:

I won a sense of belonging, totally independent of anything I’d done to deserve it. All of the kids at church were “church kids.” It didn’t matter if you sat in the long center pews with all of your family, or like me, in a side pew that only held two people, my mother and me. Most summer Sabbaths the congregation would hike after lunch, and since my parents were older and non-hikers, someone would always pick me up and cheerfully give me a ride.

I won a sense of confidence. As a little kid I grew accustomed to 13th Sabbath programs, when the children’s Sabbath School divisions would prepare and perform for the grown-ups. We would recite our memory verses for the quarter and sing, with the congregation beaming back at us as if we were on stage at Carnegie Hall.

During my college years, one of the leaders, a mother of four, said it was good to have all of us home from college and why didn’t we take over all the church responsibilities for the summer? It wasn’t so much a question as a pronouncement, and so we found ourselves leading out in the children’s Sabbath School rooms, being mentored in other church positions, even giving sermons.

We gained confidence, and the knowledge that we were appreciated and trusted. We never got the idea that we could no do wrong, but that if we made mistakes, we still belonged.

I won an affection for the church, returning the love I felt from church members. There were plenty of characters in our congregation, but it seemed we all meant well and assumed the best of each other.

This may read as a love letter to my childhood church, and I suppose it is. But more than that, it’s a love letter to my mother. She worked hard as a full-time registered nurse during the week, but I never heard her sigh and consider staying home from church. We knew where we literally belonged, and made sure we were there.

And so she gave me the gift of belonging, the gift of confidence, the gift of affection for my church – all wrapped up in the priceless gift of learning to know a God who loved me unconditionally and would always be with me.

In the photo that heads this blog post my mother is holding me in her arms as she hosts a birthday party for one of my older sisters. Although I was too young to form a lasting memory of that moment, I know I felt the security and love of her arms. Thank you, Momma, for your love, and for introducing me to the God who has always held us both in His arms. I’ll hug you again when Jesus comes to resurrect and reunite. Each day, one day closer.

Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, May 11, 2024

Time for another flower garden update from the family in our neighborhood who’ve devoted their whole front yard to growing flowers. Periodically, over the last couple of months, I’ve paused in the same spot and snapped a photo to document what’s happening.

What you see above is my April 11 picture. Notice the profusion of orange tulips?

But now, look at the photo below. This one is from this past Tuesday, May 7:

Kind of boring, right? No more cheery splashes of color. Should I get discouraged? Is this gardening family more clueless than I thought about their project?

If you’re a knowledgeable gardener, you are grinning at my silliness. Though the color is gone, you’re noticing that the rosebushes are becoming huge. And it won’t be long before they’ll be the stars of the show.

What we’re looking at here are the stages of growth. The tulips had their turn, and soon the roses will (and of course other flowers which I don’t remember from last year). “To everything there is a time . . . .”

To read four important Bible verses about spiritual growth, click the link just below:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/growth