Tag: nature

Are we there yet?

On By Charis PsalloIn Animals, Photography, Trees and forests6 Comments
Snowy robins
Snowy robins

According to the calendar spring has arrived. According the robins spring has arrived. According to the crocus spring has arrived.

According the wind whipping huge flakes of snow around the door and shoving icy cold down our necks, the calendar, robins and croci are all delusional.

Sometimes the faith life feels like this. We see the finger of God poking into our winters with the promise of spring. We see healings and restorations and resurrections of dreams. The truth is evident and we rejoice and sing and invest in the future. We buy cucumber and swiss chard seeds (or squish hard seeds as my granddaughter calls them.) Then we step out into the garden to plant them only to find ourselves shin-deep in snow.

The truth is spring has arrived. The truth is winter is still hanging on -at least in this part of the world. So we buy our seeds and start them inside the house, because even though winter has still not received the message that its days are over, we know that its days are over. Even though the worst blizzards on the prairies seem to strike in the spring, the days will turn warmer, the grass will turn green and the flowers will bloom, eventually. Summer is coming and summer has never failed us yet.

We know that God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because even though the enemy of our souls has not accepted his inevitable demise and he roars in like a spring blizzard, his days of stealing, killing and destroying are numbered. We know because God has never failed us yet. His loving kindness is everlasting.

Besides, He promised.

And God is good.

It Is Good to Wait Quietly

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Sky, Water2 Comments

IMG_3285

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
    the bitterness and the gall.
 I well remember them,
    and my soul is downcast within me.
 Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
 it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.

(Lamentations 3:19-26)

Re-established

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Trees and forests11 Comments
Breaking through
Breaking through

As you live this new life,

we pray that you will be strengthened

from God’s boundless resources,

so that you will find yourselves able to pass

through any experience

and endure it with courage.

You will even be able to thank God

in the midst of pain and distress

because you are privileged to share the lot

of those who are living in the light.

For we must never forget

that he rescued us from the power of darkness,

and re-established us in the kingdom of his beloved Son,

that is, in the kingdom of light.

For it is by his Son alone

that we have been redeemed

and have had our sins forgiven.

(Colossians 1: 11-14)

My daughter wrote this note today about her husband, who has been in critical condition in ICU for the past nine days.

“He opened his eyes. He even nodded for me and could hear everything I said. So I sat by his bed for 3 hours talking and listening to music with him and he would move his face around a bit and just show me he was there. It was medicine to my heart!

His improvements are small but bring me joy none the less.”

God is good.

How Wide

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Fields, Photography, Winter1 Comment

Cowboy Trail wide ch

And may you have the power to understand,

as all God’s people should,

how wide,

how long,

how high,

and how deep his love is. 

May you experience the love of Christ,

though it is too great to understand fully.

Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power

that comes from God.

(Ephesians 3:18, 19)

Benign

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Sky16 Comments
dark cloud
 I love you, Lord, my strength!  He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
  He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
  He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
(from Psalm 18)

What a lovely word.

be·nign

adjective \bi-ˈnīn\

Definition of BENIGN

1
: of a gentle disposition : gracious <a benign teacher>
2
a : showing kindness and gentleness <benign faces>

b : favorable, wholesome <a benign climate>

3
a : of a mild type or character that does not threaten health or life; especially : not becoming cancerous <a benign lung tumor>

b : having no significant effect : harmless <environmentally benign>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I received the pathology report today: Benign. No further treatment indicated.
Thank you, Lord!
Your light shining on this part of the journey revealed Fear still hiding in the shadows, and when he threatened to overwhelm me you rescued me.
You are good. Thank you!

Flooded with Light

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Photography, Sky4 Comments

 

kin park rays

“The Puritans used to say that far too many Christians live beneath the level of their privileges. Therefore, I need to be told by those around me that every time I sin I’m momentarily suffering from an  identity crisis: forgetting who I actually belong to, what I really want at my remade core, and all that is already mine in Christ. The only way to deal with remaining sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious riches we already possess in Christ. I need my real friends to remind me of this–every day. Please tell me again and again that God doesn’t love me more when I obey or less when I disobey. Knowing this actually enlarges my heart for God and therefore shrinks my hunger for sin. So, don’t let me forget it. My life depends on it!”  -Tullian Tchividjian

 

I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.  I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.  Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. (Ephesian 1: 16-21)

Winds of Change

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Photography, Sky, WinterLeave a comment

bootleg cloud ch

 

Real change threatens the familiar and messes up our landmarks, but we can’t grasp the future until we let go of the past. The abundant kindness of Jesus Christ teaches us the joy of surrendering the good in the interest of the best.

Rise again

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Winter8 Comments

rose hips impasto

The Roses in Winter

My daughter had this conversation with her three-year old recently.

“Mom, we don’t know what it feels like to be dead. That’s because we have never been dead before so we don’t know how it feels, and then if you are dead you can’t tell anyone because you are dead….. but maybe we could ask the flowers because they die every winter so they know how it feels…. too bad they don’t have mouths, or they would probably tell us.”

Christ is also the head of the church,

    which is his body.

He is the beginning,

    supreme over all who rise from the dead.

    So he is first in everything.

(Colossians 1:8)