6:36 AM

June 12, 2015September 10, 2015 ~ Beth ~ 1 Comment

This is only a tiny slice of the beauty of this morning.

No camera can capture the feel of cool morning dew on bare feet, or the warmth of the rising sun on my face as it burnt through the swirling mists on the lake.

You can’t know that sky high over my head was patterned with a magnificent rippling pattern of cirrocumulus clouds, all shining and white.

Perhaps a video recording might capture the liquid trilling flute of red-winged blackbirds, the trumpeting of many swans and the distant drumming of a grouse that blended in symphonic harmony all around me—but I doubt it would do it justice.

If you looked very closely, you might be able to tell that there is a miniature scene inside every single one of those water droplets, that, if magnified, would be a sparkling world of a thousand blades of grass strung with more pearls of dew with a million more worlds inside.

These pictures are a lovely glimpse of this moment in time, 6:36 AM—but there was so much more.

That’s kind of how it is with heaven. We read about streets of gold and robes of white and singing praises around the throne of God, but they are all only glimpses into wonders that we can’t even imagine. Lovely glimpses, yes—but there will be so much more. I can hardly wait!

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully…” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Wild Calla Lilies

June 9, 2015September 10, 2015 ~ Beth ~ 2 Comments

I was never overly fond of calla lilies—until the summer we moved to our current home and I found them growing wild in the swamp down the road. They quickly became my favorite new flower. They are much more diminutive version of the cultivated versions, little white points of petals peeking out from amidst the brilliant green of arrow-shaped leaves, growing up all along the watery edges of still brackish pools. They bloom just as the lilacs are beginning to fade, so it’s become my tradition to walk down and pick a handful of these when it comes time to replace the wilting lilac bouquet on our table. There are so many of them in this spot, I call it the Calla Lily Pools—it’s so lovely!

“Why take you thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all His glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:28-29)

Silly Goose

June 8, 2015April 21, 2017 ~ Beth ~ 2 Comments

I came suddenly upon a family of Canada geese crossing our driveway the other day. Almost all of the goslings hurried off as fast as their little legs could take them into the field grass, following their mother who led the way to safety honking wildly in alarm. But this little fellow seemed to have an independent streak and I imagine he’s the child who has given his poor mother the most gray hairs—er, feathers.

Off he went foolishly running in the opposite direction from his family, right down the center of the driveway in front of me. I was fortunate enough to have my camera at the ready, and of course, since his legs were very short and he had hardly any wings to speak of, he was no match for me. I easily caught up with him and snapped a portrait of the wayward little guy before shooing him off to where his mother and siblings were calling for him at a safe distance away. Silly goose! Good thing I was just an appreciative human with a camera and not a hungry wolf, or that would have been the end of him.As I watched him go, I was reminded of this passage in Isaiah:

“All we…have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way…”

Good thing for us the verse doesn’t stop there, or that would have been the end of us, too!

“…and the Lord hath laid on Him [Christ] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

We have foolishly wandered, but He has provided a way to safety anyway. How unworthily blessed we are!

Farewell to the Lilacs

June 5, 2015September 10, 2015 ~ Beth ~ 2 Comments

The lilacs are turning brown around the edges and fading away, and all the yellow swallowtail butterflies that have been flitting happily about them for the last couple weeks have gone away, too. Bless the farmer or farmer’s wife who planted a small spindly seedling in our yard some 100 years ago! Did they ever envision how splendid it would become, this massive bank of lavender every spring that wafts its heady fragrance on the winds to our porch?

How grateful I am for their foresight! Those people are long dead and gone, but their vision of beauty continues to live on in our front yard for our benefit and enjoyment. As I savored the last remnants of perfume from my porch today, I was reminded of Someone else who envisioned and planned something beautiful long before I was born, stunningly, and very intentionally, with me in mind. Actually, as long ago as before the world began.

“God…hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” (2 Timothy 1:9)

Not only that, but there’s more to come:

“For…eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

I am so grateful!

Pinecone at Sunset

June 1, 2015September 10, 2015 ~ Beth ~ Leave a comment

The newly forming cones on the red pine in our yard, beautifully highlighted by the evening sun.

“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth…the tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth, and it was so.'” (Genesis 1:11)