And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight
The sky be rolled back like a scroll
(From “It is Well with My Soul”)
Tag: nature
Remembering the Future
I was looking forward to this journey to my Father’s house on the Alberta side of the Rockies. Usually the mountain views are stunning, but instead I drove through fog for nearly four hours. I could see very little beyond the verge by the highway most of the time. Sometimes the fog would lift for a moment only to re-form and descend again. I stopped near some cabins, closed for the season, to take a break from the tension of driving in poor visibility and found a beautiful stream. When I descended the Kootenay Parkway the clouds vanished.
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Mountain Shadow Mountain Light
Photo: Fisher Peak autumn
Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it;
shout, O depths of the earth;
break forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
–Isaiah
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The Gate and The Pasture
The GateI am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
-Jesus
The Pasture
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Ein feste Burg
Photo: Floods and RocksGod is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
(Psalm 46:1-3)
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All Creation Cries
Photo: dead tree
“In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!
It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in him. We were saved by this hope, but in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven’t yet got. But if we hope for something we cannot see, then we must settle down to wait for it in patience.” (Romans 8:18 -21)
A 7.7 earthquake hit offshore of my beloved province this week — seven times stronger than the earthquake that devastated Haiti. In the past two days there have been more than fifty sizable aftershocks, one of them a 6.4.
This week an enormously strong storm hit the east side of the continent. But I’m sure you all know about that.
As I walk around my neighbourhood this day I see images in windows and on lawns and in shops celebrating the tyranny of death and decay and erecting an open admission of the acceptance of darkness as a lifestyle.
Jesus said if the children were not allowed to praise him the very stones would cry out.
Can you hear it?
Can you hear the cries of nature, of creation, as it writhes in the agony of travail?
Can you hear it in the winds as they wail,
in the floods as they weep,
in the fires as they rage,
in the trees as they faint,
in the rocks as they groan deep in the earth?
Come Lord Jesus!
We wail
we weep
we rage
we faint
we groan.
We long to be made whole!
You are our Hope.
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Where glory rests
Alpenglow on The Steeples Range
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
(Psalm 12:7)
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Benefits
Photo: snowy apples
It’s so easy, on a grey snowy day that comes too soon, to trudge from point A to point B, hood pulled partway over my face to keep the snowflakes from landing on my glasses. I hate rain or snow on my glasses. I can’t see clearly. It’s so easy to keep my eyes on the ground, resigned to disappointment.
But then I hear a voice that reminds me to look up.
When I showed these photos to a friend she was angry.
“Why didn’t they pick them?” she demanded, “Why didn’t they at least let a poor person pick them?”
Perhaps, like me, the people who owned this tree were too busy trudging through life to look up and remember the benefits that were theirs.
I think blessings are like that. We need to let go of a compromised theology based on disappointment. We need to look up to see these benefits. We need to stretch as we reach to grab hold of them. Sometimes they are just beyond our ability to grasp on our own; we might need the help and support of others who can hold a ladder of faith for us, people with clearer vision, before we can taste and see that the Lord is good.
I wonder how much unclaimed provision is up there?
Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Bless the Lord and forget not all His benefits. (Psalm 103:1)
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New snow on New Lake
Sometimes change means being willing to let all our accomplishments of the past season fall to the ground and die.
Sometimes change means letting God be God even when we don’t understand what he is doing.
Sometimes change means remembering his faithfulness year after year.
Sometimes change means embracing winter.
Sometimes a rest is as good as a change.
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I will lift up my eyes
Photo: Winter begins its descent
I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 121:1,2)
Charis: Subject to Change 