Tag: photography

This is a Photo of Two Miracles

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized4 Comments

IMG_5318 Grandfather's shoulders

Or three -or four -or five.

Just after I posted my last blog about steeping in God’s reality I looked through other photos I took this week. The significance of this simple photo of a grandfather carrying his grandson on his shoulders suddenly hit me.

Five and a half years ago we had a tough week full of bad news:

-Our daughter learned that damage from the disease that had already given her so much pain was more advanced than the specialist had thought and it was highly unlikely she could conceive a child.

-My husband learned he had a serious degenerative bone disease that affected his spine so severely that the strange malformation was threatening his spinal cord. He had to give up all sports and stressful physical activity immediately.

-A business coming out of a research project he had dedicated years to was pronounced dead, done, and defunct.

That week I had a bizarre experience when I heard a voice that said, “Follow 228, Ban our tyres,”  that led to an understanding of the definition of hope I believe the Lord gave me.  I wrote about it here:
https://charispsallo.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/hope-vision-led-endurance-2/

Hope: vision-led endurance

I had a vision of babies for my daughter, health for my husband, as well as a satisfying post-retirement business for him. It seemed like an impossible hope at the time, but I felt the Lord was asking us to be patient while he worked things out.

This is a photo of one of the children born to that infertile mother, conceived, like his sisters, without medical intervention.

This is a photo of his grandfather, not only able to walk and have full use of his hands, but able to carry the weight of that child on his back without pain despite missing a vertebra. (It’s been replaced by some sort of  vascular tissue growing there now which doesn’t pinch his spinal cord.)

This is a photo of a visit brought about by God-coincidence. As for the business, he has been able to apply his expertise to a new venture -and he and son-in-law sat together working on it this week beside this beautiful lawn.

This is a photo taken by a photographer who was smiling so much that day, her face hurt.

Our son-in-law (miracle # 4 in this story) survived a bout of flesh-eating disease which took him as close to death’s door as his doctors had ever seen someone come and still be restored to full health, with all his limbs, organs and brain intact and fully functional.

“You know it’s a miracle that guy is still alive,” one of them told his colleague.

“What? That guy should be f…. dead!” exclaimed another of the first specialists to treat him, upon hearing reports of “John’s” recovery after he returned from a long trip.

Their generous friend gave our daughter and son-in-love the gift of a week at a time share in Montana to celebrate. Now we have only been to that part of the world two, maybe three times in the past 20 years, but my husband just happened to have an appointment in the same area this very same week so we joined them for a couple of days.

Miracle # 5? The golf course closed for the season just before we arrived, but it was open to guests to stroll around on the green, green grass, beside still waters and brilliant autumn-coloured trees in warm sunshine (60 degrees F in late October is warm to Canadians!) without having to take turns hitting or chasing or losing those silly little balls. In fact our grandchildren made a profit selling 27 found balls to their Daddy.

I’m looking at the photo and steeping in the reality of God’s goodness.

Wow. Thank you, Lord! Thank you!

I love you.

Steeping in Reality

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Trees and forests, Water4 Comments

shoreline fog

Steep your life in God-reality,

God-initiative,

God-provisions.

Don’t worry about missing out.

You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

 

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now,

and don’t get worked up

about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up

when the time comes.

-Jesus

(Matthew 6:33,34 The Message)

Content

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Trees and forests, Water4 Comments
Contentment
Content

True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue – not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.

– G.K. Chesterton

Mixed Message

On By Charis PsalloIn Animals, PhotographyLeave a comment
Welcome -not
Welcome -NOT

I just about jumped out of my skin when the dog lunged at the fence, barking with an authoritarian voice that clearly negated anything that sign said about being welcome. I paused by the shaking boards only long enough  to snap a photo -and then I was out of there. If he wanted the entire lane to himself, that was fine with me. The sign said welcome, but something was missing.

Mixed messages may be difficult to read, but usually action barks louder than words.

One day I was expecting a student for a singing lesson, but I wasn’t sure if I would be on time because I planned to attend the funeral of an old acquaintance earlier in the afternoon. My student was a mature person I knew well, so I phoned her and said I would leave the door unlocked, and if I was a few minutes late she could just come in and practise.

Well, the funeral went on longer than I anticipated because so many people wanted to share what the dear departed soul meant to them.  She was dearly loved and the boxes of tissue thoughtfully placed on the pews were passed between all her many friends and family. The last person to speak talked about how her door was always open to students who dropped by regularly for cookies and advice.

At that moment I suddenly remembered that although I left the door open for my student, I forgot to turn off the burglar alarm! It is  partly a motion detector type alarm and wouldn’t go off if the unlocked door was opened, but it surely would if she walked into the living room where the piano was.

I looked at my watch and whispered my dilemma to the fellow sitting beside me. Poor guy. I caught him off guard and he guffawed loudly. Bad timing.

I wonder about the messages we give people. Sometimes the messages people intend to communicate are not, for various reasons beyond their control, perceived in the same spirit. Sometimes it’s an oversight, or bad timing. Sometimes words don’t match actions and people are rightly spooked. If folks preach love and grace, yet passers-by hear snarling disapproval or condemnation from the other side of the gate –well, no wonder they run away. If people implore others to come into their parlour and then scare the hide off them with alarms that scream “intruder alert,” they probably will not need to set another place at the table.

I used to do an exercise with students to demonstrate the importance of making sure your body communicated the same message as a song. I would ask them to touch their chin with their finger.

“Touch your finger to your chin like this,” I said, but then I deliberately touched my cheek. Nearly every one of them touched their cheek as I was demonstrating. A few looked confused or asked me to clarify. Rarely would someone actually do as I said and not as I did.

I usually went on to tell them if their face and shoulders looked morose, even if the song was joyful, the audience would go with morose. Actions carry greater authority as messengers than we realize.

How many prodigals are kept out of the Kingdom of God by the unlovely character of those who profess to be inside!

– Henry Drummond

It’s a pretty basic lesson, really. People will know if love is genuine or if they are being coerced or manipulated. Jesus said, “By this will all people know that you are my followers: if you have love for one another.”

Love. Either it’s real, or it’s not.

How Great is the Hope

On By Charis PsalloIn Fields, Mountains, PhotographyLeave a comment

IMG_3457 Burmis field mtns

Since, then, I heard of this faith of yours in the Lord Jesus and the practical way in which you are expressing it towards fellow-Christians, I thank God continually for you and I never give up praying for you; and this is my prayer. That God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the all-glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and the insight to know more of him: that you may receive that inner illumination of the spirit which will make you realise how great is the hope to which he is calling you—the magnificence and splendour of the inheritance promised to Christians—and how tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.

That power is the same divine power which was demonstrated in Christ when he raised him from the dead and gave him the place of supreme honour in Heaven—a place that is infinitely superior to any conceivable command, authority, power or control, and which carries with it a name far beyond any name that could ever be used in this world or the world to come. (Ephesians 1:15-21 Phillips)

 

Black and White

On By Charis PsalloIn Animals, Black and white, Fields, Man made, Uncategorized2 Comments

IMG_3344 horses windmillsI will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

which must be curbed with bit and bridle,

or it will not stay near you.

(Psalm 32:8,9)

I heard someone ask once, “What are the minimum qualifications for being a Christian? What is the least I must do or believe to get “in”?  I had trouble answering that question. It felt like a young man asking a friend’s advice on a relationship with a woman who expressed her love for him, by asking, “What is the minimum required of me to be married to her?”

I would be tempted to say, “Run, girl!”

Jesus answered a similar question in Mark 10.

 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

In other words, he wants your whole heart.

When first introduced to the God of power in the desert, the one who showed up on the mountain in a sound and light show beyond description, the children of Israel said, basically, “Moses, this God is too scary. Tell you what, you talk to him, get his demands in writing, and when you have it in black and white we’ll have our people look at it and get back to you.” Thus a relationship with rules and a book (and experts on rules and the book as intermediaries) became the norm. The question they were asking was, “What is the minimum we need to do to get what we want and keep this God from being mad at us and making our lives miserable?”

A minimum marriage requires signatures in black and white on a marriage certificate. A true marriage requires a husband to lovingly lay down everything for his wife, the way Christ laid down his life for the church, and for a wife to respond to that love by offering him everything she has in return. The Bible often uses the metaphor of the Bride of Christ for his chosen church, the ones who have responded to his call.

Being a Christian is all about relationship. And yes, God does communicate with his beloved with more than rules and a book. He has already given everything. She just has to come to him.

Hiding Place

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Photography, Water4 Comments
Hiding Place
Hiding Place

“Come Away”

You are a hiding place for me;
    you preserve me from trouble;
    you surround me with shouts of deliverance. 

(Psalm 32:7)

Seriously?

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Photography, Trees and forests, Water10 Comments

Yesterday I scrambled down a deep ditch and through brambles and thickets and barbed wire looking for a pond I remembered that might still have colourful leaves around it.

“Oh Lord, please let this be worthwhile,” I prayed under my breath as I unsnagged my sweater from another monstrous Russian thistle.

IMG_4295 Wildhorse Pond Autumn

“Secret Place” (click on photo to enlarge)

He answered.

Oh, Lord, you are seriously good. You gave me a gift of more than I imagined. Thank you.

And since he created me to be creative I played with the photos when I got home.

Here’s the thing, my other prayer yesterday was just wanting to know if he loved me. There are those out there who say I am deceived, I have disappointed my Lord and am heading for hell. In a still silent voice he spoke through riotous colour. “Seriously? What do you think? You just posted a scripture today about true believers having the mind of Christ available to them. Think with that mind.”

Right.

Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit  so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings.

 This is a doxology of praise to the One with power that is beyond understanding.

 Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us, to Him be all glory in the church and in Jesus the Anointed from this generation to the next, forever and ever. (Ephesians 3:16-21 The Voice)

Abide

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Photography, Water3 Comments

IMG_4125reeds stump

“Abiding in the presence of God is learning to see Him in every situation.”  -Graham Cooke

  • My faith has found a resting place,
    Not in device nor creed;
    I trust the Ever-living One,
    His wounds for me shall plead.
  • I need no other argument,
    I need no other plea;
    It is enough that Jesus died,
    And that He died for me.

-Eliza Hewitt, 1891

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1 John 4:15-18)