God has gone before us so we can walk in the future he has for us.
-Priscilla Shirer
Category: Trees and forests
First Sketch
When humans should have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.
– C.S. Lewis
(Click on photo for larger version.)
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Fly Fishing on the Elk River
I love this place. This is one of my favourite spots in British Columbia. My dear friend and I drove past it yesterday on our way to Starbucks in Fernie for an October treat: a pumpkin spice latte. We stopped to take photos and noticed the fly-fishermen wading in the river down in the valley. I soaked in the abundance of beauty, a gracious gift from God, and my soul felt refreshed.
The autumn colours remind me that even in change there is beauty. There is abundant grace.
Thank you, Lord.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
(2 Corinthians 9:8 NASB)
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The Rock of My Strength
My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
Trust in Him at all times, O people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us.
Selah.
(Psalm 62:5-8)
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Morning on the North Saskatchewan River
Grace comes into the soul, as the morning sun into the world; first a dawning; then a light; and at last the sun in his full and excellent brightness.
– Thomas Adams
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Turn
I took a wrong turn.
I’m helping my elderly mother-in-law. Her apartment is in the centre of the downtown core of large city. I am not used to this kind of traffic or the visual and auditory distractions everywhere. Sirens, flashing lights, construction barriers, drivers honking at me. It takes a while to build up selective inattention; my senses feel assaulted. And I always seem to be in the wrong lane! I just slipped out on a quick errand and by the time I was halfway home my nerves were shot.
Well, I was in the wrong lane again and ended up in a parking lot in the river valley. Instead of aiming my poor little car back into the fray I got out and went for a walk (a stomp would be more accurate). I came upon a green space and followed the asphalt trail, jumping out of my skin every time a cyclist whizzed by me and blushing every time I happened upon couples who really needed to get a room. I saw a deserted-looking path going up a narrow gorge. I know, probably not a good idea for a woman alone in the big city but I craved solitude and missed the woods back home. So I followed it.
Ahh. There, right in the midst of rush and shove of angry people (including me) an unpopulated refuge. A gift. The song in my head was about God being a strength and shield. “You give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk with him.”
Thanks, Lord. I needed that.
I’m still learning to maintain that peace while looking for an address in heavy traffic. My husband will tell you I’m not there yet, but at least I know peace can exist in the middle of a stressful place.
I had my quiet time in the woods yesterday. And there were no bears.
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Choosing Gratitude
“Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. I can choose to be grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly.”
-Henri Nouwen
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Crowded Kindnesses
Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.
– Alexander MacLaren
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Green
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” – William Blake
Charis: Subject to Change 