Tag: nature

Unfading Beauty

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Mountains, PhotographyLeave a comment

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Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by the beauty of God’s creation I just want to cry and thank him from the bottom of my heart for moments like these.

But they are moments. I am anxious to get out there with my camera because I know these sunny wild flowers will fade and die within a week or two.

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Other flowers will replace them later -the lupins, the daisies, the bright red salvia- and they will be just as beautiful. And they will also droop and fade and die.

In landscape photography much depends upon the season and the weather conditions and the time of day and angle of the sun. I think my desperation to get out there when the conditions are right, even though the timing may be inconvenient for other obligations, is about an awareness that life is fleeting.

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But temporary beauty is like a sign post that points to a greater, more permanent beauty that will not fade.

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I’ve been thinking about this verse:
But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:4)

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I disliked it in my youth because of the way it and the surrounding verses were applied. The result was a rather oppressive less-than-lovely interpretation of freedom. Today I see something different. Some translations use the term incorruptible beauty, meaning beauty that is not subject to ugly decay like a corpse. Other translations say unfading loveliness or lasting beauty. All of them talk about a higher form of beauty -a gentle, quiet, peaceful spirit. “Not anxious or wrought up” in the Amplified version. Peace comes from within, but so does beauty.

I would not want to return to the type of sexual harassment I experienced in some of my first jobs, nor would I want to be embarrassed by the wolf whistles and remarks that came with walking past construction sites when I was 18, but like many woman I never realized how far my looks took me until I lost them. There’s that moment when you realize that being called a femme fatale is now more about your absent-mindedness behind the wheel of a car than your ability to be a lust-magnet. It’s actually kind of a sad day when attractive men confide in you about their romantic problems as if you have been neutered by “fading loveliness.”

Beauty is not the only currency. Many of my friends who are reaching retirement age have to face the realization that the currency that earned them a place of respect or usefulness in this world is not holding its former value. Surgeons lose their dexterity, musicians lose their hearing, and teachers lose their patience. Athletes and dancers face this reality sooner than actuarians, but eventually the time comes when we are replaced by those with brighter newer beauty, talent, or skill. We fight it. Man, how we fight it, but reality hits us square in the mirror eventually.

“Inward beauty” is not a euphemism for “nice personality” or “a great face for radio.” Inward beauty is more like the light that glows in a dark and dreary season. Inward beauty shines when a person knows they are deeply loved and cherished. The inwardly beautiful will not be plucked, stuffed in a vase, admired and tossed a few days later; they are at peace with God and themselves and can afford to love others gently and extravagantly because they know they have been forgiven much. Inward beauty does not fade or droop or shrivel or rot. It keeps growing through all the seasons of life because their intimate relationship with the Creator of such beauty grows on for eternity.

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We’ve only just begun.

Away With Sorrow

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Mountains6 Comments

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I look forward to this week here in the mountains. The sunflowers are in bloom on Eager Hill. The minor surgery I had last week has knocked the stuffings out of me a bit, but taking the climb slowly allowed me to appreciate the scents and sounds and changing light as spring showers shifted through the sky. I took frequent breaks and simply breathed in joy.

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Mein gläubiges Herze,
Frohlocke, sing, scherze,
Dein Jesus ist da!
Weg Jammer, weg Klagen,
Ich will euch nur sagen:
Mein Jesus ist nah.

My faithful heart,
delight, sing, play,
your Jesus is here!
Away with sorrow, away with lamenting,
I will only say to you:
my Jesus is near.
-J.S. Bach

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Release your heart’s joy in sweet music to the Eternal.
    When the upright passionately sing glory-filled songs to Him, everything is in its right place.
Worship the Eternal with your instruments, strings offering their praise;
    write awe-filled songs to Him on the 10-stringed harp.
Sing to Him a new song;
    play each the best way you can,
    and don’t be afraid to be bold with your joyful feelings.

 For the word of the Eternal is perfect and true;
    His actions are always faithful and right.
 He loves virtue and equity;
    the Eternal’s love fills the whole earth.

(Psalm 33:1-5)

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20 Degrees!

On By Charis PsalloIn Music, Photography, Trees and forests8 Comments

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Twenty degrees! (That’s room temperature for those of you living in the country that doesn’t use Celsius.) Yesterday the sun was shining! I opened the windows! I went out without a jacket!

I had work to do, but the forest paths called to me.

The snow was gone. The birds were singing! The trees were rustling! The scent of pine and fir and cedar is starting to return.

Ahhh

When through the woods and forest glades I wander

and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,

when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur

and see the brook and feel the gentle breeze,

then sings my souls, my Saviour God, to Thee,

“How great Thou art!”

 

 

 

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Go-between

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, SkyLeave a comment

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“Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them. We are content to have the message second-hand. One of Israel’s fatal mistakes was their insistence on having a human king rather than resting on the theocratic rule of God over them. We can detect a note of sadness in the word of the Lord, ‘they have rejected me from being king over them’ (1 Sam. 8:7). The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between. In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change.”
― Richard J. Foster

Dressing in Layers

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Trees and forests4 Comments

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Our days are a kaleidoscope. Every instant a change takes place. New harmonies, new contrasts, new combinations of every sort. The most familiar people stand each moment in some new relation to each other, to their work, to surrounding objects.  –Henry Ward Beecher

We are in a season here in the southern British Columbia Rockies where one day it is spring and the next day (sigh) winter again. I’m packing for a road trip and I don’t know what to take – parka, jacket, hoodie?. The weather report includes predictions of a wide variety of experiences which will require flexibility.

It strikes me that when we live among people we care about who, like us, are in a process of change, great flexibility is required. When we’ve made adjustments and developed the habit of tip-toeing around someone’s idiosyncrasies, attempts on their part to change can throw off our own sense of equilibrium. Yes, we want to encourage change, but now we need to readjust. Sometimes we are not prepared. Sometimes we don’t have the appropriate clothing at hand.

Relationships between people who desire to follow God and live out their identity in Him are never static. One day it is spring, and the next it’s back to winter again. We need to be kind to each other, and be flexible. I’ve heard it’s wise to dress in layers.

But When I Am Afraid…

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Trees and forests4 Comments

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But when I am afraid,

I will put my trust in you.

I praise God for what he has promised.

I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?

What can mere mortals do to me?

(Psalm 56:3,4  NLT)

One night after praying, I heard, “If I show you where I am going with this, it removes the element of faith.”

I read the great faith chapter in the book of Hebrews today, the one that starts with, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (11:1) It goes on to list many faithful people who trusted in God’s promise. It lists what they accomplished by faith. Toward the end of the chapter it says:

 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection.

Yes! I thought, Look at what was accomplished by faith in people who were born before Jesus Christ died and rose again to conquer sin and death once and for all. Imagine what kind of things God plans for His church to do now that Christ indwells us and is our hope of glory! Jesus said “Greater works shall you do…

Then I read the next part:  Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

SAY, WHAT?

Then I remembered the verse in Revelation 12:11 I mentioned in an earlier post, that says “They over came him [the accuser, the evil one] by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives even unto death.”  In Philippians 3:10 (a theme verse for my life) Paul wrote that He longed to know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings. I would prefer to gloss over those parts, but I can’t. Knowing Christ on a deeper level involves suffering.

Persecution is real and sharing suffering is part of knowing Christ. As Graham Cooke says, “God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power.”

A good father will allow his child to face increasingly difficult challenges that strengthen him. A good friend will allow you to share their suffering -and their joy- with them.

When my close friend was dying of cancer she sent many acquaintances away with a cheerful wave, but she gave me the privilege of staying with her through all the ugly parts of her suffering until the end. The last thing she said to me was, “My angel is singing to me.”   Jesus told his disciples they were more than servants; they were friends.

But do we need to live in fear?

I was terrified of childbirth. My mother had many complications and I heard the story of how horrible my birth was over and over. The result was a fear of not only labour and delivery but, eventually, of  even visiting anyone in hospital.  I was steeped in a culture of fear. But after my son was born, which I admit was no picnic, I learned that I was much stronger than I thought, that fear of physical pain did not need to set limits on my happiness. I could endure because I knew the joy that came afterward. (And as I tell young women who are as fearful as I, if the pain was all that bad would so many of us choose to bear more children after the first? Even my mother, who had every complication in the book, chose to have another baby after me.)

If we back up and see the big, BIG picture we can see that eventually, for the believer, all  tears end when we are face to face with our Lord -even for the ones sawn in two. There is more to come. Fear of pain, emotional or physical, need not set the limits of our joy. It was for the joy set before Him that Christ endured the cross and despised the shame heaped on Him. We can trust Him to give us the grace we need for the assignments He has for us. I do not have the grace for a hypothetical trial right now, because, like a train ticket to Novosibirsk, I don’t need it right now. Jesus’ promise to never leave or forsake me means that I can trust that when I do, He will provide it. It would be silly to fret over not having a ticket I don’t (and may never) need.

A lion’s roar is meant to be intimidating. Roaring lions are territorial. The enemy manipulates with fear. Peter warns:

 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Fear not. God is good.

In Season and Out of Season

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Trees and forests4 Comments

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I donned my water-proof boots and headed back up to the woods yesterday. The tall grasses of last summer slumped over in wadded tangles of faded brown. Between the puddles patches of green moss, kinnikinnik, Oregon grapes and half a dozen mosses and lichens proudly prove that they endured yet another winter, remaining faithfully green underneath a thick blanket of snow.

March and April mean the time spring blossoms in many parts of the world. March and April, in most of southern Canada, and especially here in the shadow of the Rockies, is when the snow may or may not start to melt and when the detritus of winter is no longer covered with pristine blankets of glowing white snow. A lot of garbage and dead plant life from last summer clutters the landscape and piles of accumulated snow morph into piles of dirty sludge. It’s not very pretty. If the temperature rises suddenly and the snow withdraws quickly droppings from pets and farm animals may thaw on the same day and the winds of early spring are not such a sweet thing, believe me. The deer left plenty of unpleasant evidence behind that they chose our front garden as their bed this winter.

Spring is a welcome season of stirring hope, but for people like loggers, who work outside, break-up means going home and waiting for the ground to dry until they can work again. In the tourism trade it’s called the shoulder season -too wet (or too dangerous due to avalanche hazard) to hike, too warm to ice fish or outdoor skate or to ski the lower hills, too cold to boat or swim. Out of season. It’s a good time to tend to tools that need repair.

Paul wrote to his young protegé, Timothy, that making disciples of Jesus is ongoing. True there are seasons when many new believers are born into the family of God and seasons when the Church experiences rapid growth in maturity, but there are also seasons when growth is hidden. Sometimes it looks like nothing is happening, but when the cold and dark season gives up its hold the warming light reveals that which has endured. The mosses and lichens have been busy breaking down dead trees and hard rocks to prepare the soil for another season of growth. Seeds that have lain dormant will soon take root and shoot up.

You know, we never know what is going on in the hearts of people who appear to be cold and hard. We are just called to love faithfully -in season and out of season.

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I urge you, Timothy, as we live in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus (whose coming in power will judge the living and the dead), to preach the Word of God. Never lose your sense of urgency, in season or out of season. Prove, correct, and encourage, using the utmost patience in your teaching. (2 Timothy 4:1,2 Phillips)

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