Dandelion Details

I remember picking these when I was a kid, bunches of them, and blowing them into the wind. This one blew me away. I never looked at one so closely. The detail and beauty is something else. A few more days and it will be gone, but I am amazed at the attention God has given to things that may be seen my no one. There are fish in the depths of the ocean that will live their whole lives never seen by a human being.

God sees them. They are there for His enjoyment. He sees me, too. I hope He enjoys what He sees. I think He does. If He gives this much attention to a dandelion, I know He's working on me.

Brilliance

When the light is right, these blossoms really come alive. I am my best, too, when Christ's light is shining on me, in me, and around me.

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6

Blossoms

How this ended up with a black background I do not know, but I am glad. It was still quite light out when I walked through the woods.

Bee on Rhododendron

I took this one at my parents' house. They have a rhododendron bush right by the front steps. It just so happened the bee was busy at the time I was photographing the blossoms. It's great to capture moments like these.

Lichen

This lichen was growing on a dead tree. I took the shot while walking through Padgett Park a couple of days ago. I went by tonight to get a couple of shots under a little different lighting and something had stepped on it. I'm glad I got it when I did. Seize the moment.

Tulip

This tulip had not yet opened. I took the shot in the early evening, and the light seemed just right. It almost looks like a rose.

Roughest Places

Anne and I were on our way back from Springfield, Missouri last Monday. We were there for the tenth birthday celebration for Save Europe's Children. On the way down we stopped in St. Louis to see the arch. The eastern redbuds were in full bloom.

I was fascinated by these clusters of blossoms which popped right out of the trunks or large branches. Creation teaches us a wonderful lesson here. You usually think that the trunk and large branches are the roughest, toughest parts of the tree. And right out of these roughest places these little corsages of beauty seem to pop out with no difficulty.

It's a good lesson. Out of the roughest places you face in life, God can bring surprising bursts of joy, satisfaction, and beauty. At the moment it may seem hard, but wait, God has something else in mind for that rough place.

Fireworks of Spring

Brown Pelican

Grudges

Grudges are clots in the arteries leading to a happy heart.
-Frank Tyger

Fear

Fear is the darkroom where the devil takes you to develop your negatives.
-Unknown

A Mother's Love

Where is this?

OK, Greater Lansingites, anyone know where this was taken?

First Crocus

It is in the knowledge and sight of God principally that the soul has its bliss, and that the more he is known the better will he be loved.
- Walter Hilton

This is the first crocus of spring, the first flower of the season in our yard. Let the yard work begin, 'cuz spring is really here.

April Fool's Day

Whew! The day is almost over and Anne hasn't got me yet. She tried this morning but failed. Last year she tied a rubber band around the vegetable sprayer, and when I turned on the faucet to get a glass of water, my shirt was soaked. Yes, watch out for Anne on April 1. Every other day of the year she is so sweet, but oooooh, on April 1, we all like to keep our distance.

A Favorite Spot

"This has always been one of my favourite spots. often, as I stood here of a quiet evening, the sea intoning its song with deep but calm solemnity, my eye catching not a single sail on the vast surface, and only the sea framed the sky and the sky the sea, and when, too, the busy hum of life grew silent and the birds sang their vespers . . ."
- Kierkegaard

Word Landscaping

"So throw away all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation garden of your life."
James 1:21, The Message

Frederik Meijer Gardens

Anne and I had a Monday date in Grand Rapids. We went to the Frederik H. Meijer Gardens. It was really nice. We'd been there a few years back. They have added a lot to it. Here are just a few pics from the trip.

Crooked Stick

Sometimes God draws a straight line with a crooked stick.
-Larry Osborne, as seen in Outreach Magazine.

Easter Musical '08

What a great program. We are thankful for everyone that participated in this fine performance. The name of it was I've Seen Jesus. You can view more pictures on the church website.

Country Winter

If you walk near sundown, you never know how the ordinary can become exceptional. I wonder how many times we accept the ordinary without looking for the extraordinary.

Adventure

An adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.
- G. K. Chesterton

What is it you love?

(Click on picture for larger image.)

If you really want to know what it is you love, consider what it is you are most thinking about. For where you love is, there your eye will be turned, your pleasure found, and your heart preoccupied. If you love God very much, you will take your pleasure in thinking a great deal about him. If you love him only a little, you will only think about him a little of the time.
- Walter Hilton

At Water's Edge

So contented, staring at the approaching surf. I, also, love staring at the water with my feet at water's edge.
(Click on photo for larger image.)

Brown Pelican

Did this one know how to pose, or what? There is so much beauty that goes unnoticed in God's great world. I started to take His word seriously when He said, "Consider the lily . . . consider the birds," and I have found that there is so much that exists simply for His pleasure, His glory, His enjoyment. And they have this subtle trust, this sense of solid knowing what they are about and why they're here. They don't even have to think about it a whole lot, they just are!

Snowy Egret with Attitude

This little guy doesn't suffer from lack of confidence. He may be one of God's smaller creatures, but he knows who he is. What a great bird. (Click on the pic to view larger image.)

Great Egret

Amanda and I spent a week with my parents in Florida. I enjoyed taking lots of photographs. This one was taken at the south pier in St. Petersburg where we went fishing. I think I spent more time photographing than I did fishing. I did catch four trout and one mackerel, but I caught a few hundred great shots of gulls, egrets, pelicans, pigeons, etc. These creatures are so fascinating. Through photography I really take time to focus on things that normally wouldn't take much of my time or thought. Here's one of my favorites. (Click on the pic to view larger image.)

Discipleship

And as a discipleship of Jesus I am with him, by choice and by grace, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God. This is the crucial idea. I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I.
- Dallas Willard

God Invisible

Through the indwelling Spirit the human spirit is brought into immediate contact with higher spiritual reality. It looks upon, tastes, feels, and sees the power of the world to come and has a conscious encounter with God invisible.
-A. W. Tozer

Reason & Heart

If we submit everything to reason, our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.
-Blaise Pascal

Overcoming Resistance to God

The heart discovers and experiences God; reason demonstrates and explains God. Right-thinking must be wedded to personal experience of God in the core of one's being. The mind cannot adequately motivate us volitionally (by the exercise of willpower) to overcome deep resistance to God so that we can follow and serve Him with joy.
- Bruce Demarest

Knowing & KNOWING

We have made knowledge and doctrine an end in itself, whereas according to the Great Commandment the biblical goal is love. It is possible to know a lot about God, but not know God Himself.
- Dr. Neil Anderson

Knowing & KNOWING

A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant.
- Stephen Charnock (d. 1680), Puritan

Oh my! Busted!

He was trying to eat out of the bird feeder, and I caught him red-handed. He knew it, too. I know he did. Just look at his expression. He knows he's busted.

Knowing & KNOWING

You can be straight as a gun barrel theologically and as empty as one spiritually.
- A. W. Tozer

My Valentine!

Trust

I told Anne this morning that watching these finches is an interesting enterprise. The constantly look about, eating a bit, looking nervously about, then grabbing another bite, and looking about again. Sometimes we've made a sudden or unusual movement, and they all fly away. But they come back.

I told her that if they only knew we're not going to harm them. We are the ones helping them, providing thistle for them. We enjoy watching them. We like having them around. If they only knew.

Then I said, "We're like that with God. I don't think we really understand how trustworthy He is. We look nervously about, get flustered by the smallest movements outside of our normal frame of reference. Yet He provides for us, enjoys us, delights in having us around Him. And sometimes, the one who cares the most and provides the best for us is not trusted in the way He should be trusted."

Lord, help us to trust you more fully each day and to take delight in the fact that you delight in us.

Center on God

Our real problem in failing to center [on God] is not lack of time; it is, I fear, in too many of us, lack of joyful enthusiastic delight in Him, lack of deep, deep-drawing love directed toward Him at every hour of the day and night.

I think it is clear that I am talking about a revolutionary way of living. Religion isn't something to be added to our other duties, and thus make our lives yet more complex. The life with God is the center of life and all else is remodeled and integrated by it.

- Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

False Self

Whenever we attempt to have God in our life on our terms, we are a religious false self. Any God we have in our life on our terms is an idol. A manifestation of the greatest fear of our religious false self is that the true and living God might become manifest and shatter the idol and blow the walls out of the box.

- M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.

Friendly Finches

Today was the first day that I saw these birds at the feeder. I was late this year getting the thistle out. For a few days the level of thistle did not go down. But sure enough, I noticed one day that the thistle level was down, and today I looked out and wow, there were lots of birds coming and going. I had a great time photographing them.

Faint Experience

The faintness of their experience reflects itself in the verses in which they seek to communicate it.
-Lord David Cecil

Freedom

Freedom is perfect when no other love can impede our desire to love God.
-Thomas Merton

Thinking

It is not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and looking out the window.
-Wallace Stevens, Poet

My Loon

Good Ideas

The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas.
- Linus Pauling

The Word

Letting myself be touched by God's words is like turning my face toward the wind and feeling its gentle force against my skin. It is like stretching out on a sandy beach and allowing the rays of the sun to penetrate my chilled body.

When I approach the word in an attitude of relaxed receptivity, it is able to spiral into the core of my being. It touches me gently and makes me aware of those areas of my life that need to be warmed by God's light.

- Adrian van Kaam, from Am I Living a Spiritual Life?

A White Girl's Reflection on Dr. King

by Rebecca Fields

I don't think I properly valued Martin Luther King Day until yesterday, when I was teaching my students about it. What he lived for wasn't as real to me as I wanted it to be.

Because, let's face it: I'm white. And I didn't think the intense value of what he (and others like him) contributed (contribute) made an impact on my personal life because somewhere along the road I was given the ill-conceived notion that . . . click here to read the rest of the article.

Hat Tip: Mark Orfila

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Our office has been closed today to observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Tonight I listened to his I Have a Dream speech. It always moves me.

I have benefitted from his legacy, in that, our church is diverse and a wonderful mixture of people from different cultures, races, and backgrounds. I am grateful for the stand Dr. King took. I honor his memory.

Honest Work v. Needless Worry

"Is the fatigue I feel a result of honest work or is it a sign of needless worry?

"The more demanding a task is, the more necessary it is to look at if from a distance.

"This standing back allows me to deepen my understanding of it. It is the contemplative perspective that helps me to see what God wants me to do, and not the slogan that 'I can do anything I put my mind to.'

"God calls most of us to be ordinary laborers in his vineyard without heroics, even without major sacrifice. We are asked to put him first, to move through each day somehow in touch with him."

-Adrian van Kaam