Category: Trees

The Tinge

Of Dinge

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Those Are Not Clouds, Just Smoke!

Wildfires Burn,

Smoke Kills

From the Inside.

Psalm 51:14

Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

James 5:13

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

Words of Grace For Today

The runners sent to bring news of what waters would come their way returned when Julius’ people had managed in the hunting camp for four days. They reported that the five natural dams up river were all spilling over, the higher ones pouring wildly through eroded pathways. The sixth dam, the one closest to their community, still held the waters behind it, though only a meter remained before water would spill over it, and eventually it would erode away like the higher ones already had.

With this report, Julius called the community all together, though most were already there eager to hear from the runners. He asked if anyone had an idea of what they could do.

One of the builders spoke up: we could build a way to let water out of the sixth and fifth dams enough to lower them as much as possible. Let that water run, it would flood a bit, though not more than they had seen in past years. Then they could plug the dams enough so they would hold the flood that was coming. If they controlled the flow in two dams, and maybe even three they could reduce the flooding, maybe enough so that their community would survive. A group of builders gathered around and among themselves filled in the details of a plan. Julius called for quiet as they planned. When the builders turned around, Julius asked them what they needed to make it happen. They responded: lots of workers, everyone available. And tools. We’ll gather the tools. And we will need a few people to prepare meals and make a camp for us at each dam. With people ready to leave the gathering, the runners interrupted with one more piece of information.

They saw smoke off to the northwest on their way back starting at the fourth dam all the way to the fifth dam. There was a big fire somewhere upwind and it made it hard to breath at times. It looks like a tinge of dinge covering the whole sky.

Julius reminded them that they had natural fire breaks on all sides of the community so the fire was not a problem for them, but the smoke could be very dangerous. He asked one of the clothes makers if they could make masks to protect everyone who went to work on the dams. After talking it over with another clothes maker he said they could have them ready in a few days. We could send them by runner as they are ready and the workers would have them before they were done with the sixth dam.

That settled it. Julius asked if there were anything else they needed to hear about before the volunteers scrambled to get everything together for their days of working on the dams. No one answered and a hush came over the people.

Julius reminded them that the fires and smoke and the floodwaters would threaten other communities. They knew of five downstream and two more that the fire and smoke would likely affect. “We will send runners to them to give them news of our plans, ask for helpers, and to see what help we can provide them.”

“Remember always,” Julius said, “what was written and told by the Iblers so many times: ‘Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.’

With that one of the singers started them singing a song of thanks, and hope, and love carrying the people into the future for generations to come: “Lord, you are life’s hope when life withers away, in clay and on rocks grow full in us, be germinating seed, be a secure place, Bring forth buds and bloom bright in us. And as a new ’morrow breaks on this good planet forth, in this new growing day, blossom in us. Keep us safe, securely, firmly in your strong, good hands and bless us all, bless us all and this your planet.

Lord, you are life’s goodness where loving breaks down,in our coldest times, breathe into us. give generous spirits, be our warming light, be hot flame, be burning in us. And as a new ’morrow breaks on this good planet warming again this new day, burn bright in us. Keep us safe, securely, firm in your good gracious hands, and bless us all, bless us all and your good planet.

Lord, you are life’s joy where all laughter is lost, in our deepest dark, live on in us, be joyous dreams dancing, be comforting sight, be voices and sing on in us. And as a new ’morrow breaks on this good planet forth, a wonder filled new day, sing on in us. Keep us safe, securely, firmly in your loving hands, and bless us all, bless us all and your good planet.”

Working

The Other Way

By Peace

Friday, May 19, 2023

We Learn Best to Live By the Example of the Best of Days:

at Peace.

First Samuel 17:47

… and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.

Luke 10:5

Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!”

Words of Grace For Today

When Julius had calmed the community enough to put things into action, and sent their own runners up river to survey what was what with the ‘flood surge’ coming their way, every able bodied person worked to create a berm that could hold back some water. Then they moved their livestock to the highest ground away from the river. After that was done in a few hours, they all packed everything they needed and could take with them and retreated to their hunting camp. It was the first time many of them had been there. Not everyone hunted or needed to, since most of their food they grew and produced themselves. Those new to the camp were amazed how rustic yet functional it was, though it hardly could house them all. They set about expanding it, at least on a temporary basis so there was protection for everyone, protection from the weather and from the wild animals that lived here. It was after all a hunting camp.

Someone suggested that they should hunt down the animals nearby, to make it safer for them. Wiser people explained they needed the animals to live on, even here. So they implemented a better plan where they could live in peace with the wild animals and with each other. The latter soon proved to be the more difficult plan to achieve as disagreements rose and flared between people as they started to realize how short the resources here would be.

Julius worked harder than ever in his life to treat the ill and calm the nerves of those caught in the conflicts. He was glad that years before he learned to enter every house and conversation blessing people with peace.

Oh, he thought, that more people would orient themselves so, each morning, noon, and night.

Give Us

A Break

Sunday, May 14, 2023

The Trees May Look Goners,

and the Sky Dark

with a tiny sliver of a moon,

but that Moon Reflects

the Light of the World.

All is not lost or dark.

Daniel 6:19-24

Then, at break of day, the king got up and hurried to the den of lions. When he came near the den where Daniel was, he cried out anxiously to Daniel, ‘O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you faithfully serve been able to deliver you from the lions?’ Daniel then said to the king, ‘O king, live for ever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong.’ Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. The king gave a command, and those who had accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. Before they reached the bottom of the den the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

John 10:27-28

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

Words of Grace For Today

“If one is awake at all, one knows that there is more that goes wrong in life than goes right.” So goes the ‘wisdom’ of those who propagate fear in order to control others, whether it’s politicians or just your local neighbourhood kid out to make her way among the other kids.

Jesus knew (it’s not that great a secret) that fear is the deadliest enemy to living a good life, a life abundant and blessed. In so many ways he taught with words, healing, and example how to live free of fear.

Not that living free of fear frees one from what can take life from us, but why help all that evil life-sucking stuff get to us sooner than it may anyway. Let evil have to work the full routine if it’s going to get us.

Now the writer of Daniel took another tack. We like this one. The enemies plot and succeed in getting the king (against his wishes) to throw our good Daniel into the den of lions to be eaten. Gruesome end, to say the least. But then God intervenes and frees Daniel not only from fear but from the beasts that are to be feared. The king celebrates and then deals with those who forced him to toss Daniel to the lions. He has them thrown to the lions and for them and their families there is no rescue. The lions ‘overpowered them and broke all their bones.’ At least we are spared the bloody details.

But that is not how God works, as the mountain of evidence to the contrary shows so well. Evil, whether it is a company of schemers and plotters who would have us thrown to the lions, or the neighbourhood kid out to run the other kids her way, or the politician who would create fear in order to win elections, or the lawyers, judges, ex’s and other criminals (liars they are) who create lies and punishments for obvious lies, – evil seems to win.

Exactly to that appearance Jesus speaks: it is not a win for them. It is a loss. A loss of decency. A loss of good life. A loss of truth. A loss of honour. A loss of blessings. A loss of one’s soul to the Devil. As for us who suffer the evil efforts of others: we win again, not because of what we do or do not do, but because of what God does for us.

God blesses.

God protects us.

God shows us how to live, even when evil seems to conquer all around us, and how to live free of fear and filled with joy.

God shows us how to leave the battle with evil to God’s power, the power of love in weakness, suffering, and even death – to which God responds with eternal life for us.

No one can take from us what God gives us. And that is the win of a lifetime. Greater a win there is not.

Bronze

… and Better

Saturday, May 13, 2023

Better Than Green Forests

Against Raging Wildfires,

God Provides Protection

Against All Enemies

and

All Their Weapons

Jeremiah 15:20

And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Words of Grace For Today

Times of need abound for all of us except a few misfortunate too-rich people who never have a need at all. That’s got to be a dull and boring life, to say the least … unless they use that luxury to meet others’ needs, maybe?

It is in our times of need that we learn how desperately we need God, and perhaps we know enough to turn to God and ask for help, for mercy, and for grace that we may live.

Then, though we may seem to be a people made of clay from the feet up, God makes us like impenetrable walls. At one time that may have been solid bronze walls, but with nuclear bombs and chemical/biological weapons bronze is not enough. Still God makes us impervious to all our enemies and all their weapons they would use against us, most of all the psychological weapons that would manipulate our apprehension of reality so that we are afraid.

When God is for us, no one can destroy us, nor destory us.

This is the beginning of each new day: God walks with us and protects us. We have nothing to fear and everything to give to those in need.

Moving into this day with a small jig of joy, a graceful gift from God.

Crying!

Crying To God

Or Languishing Away …

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Even The Animals There Were Barely Alive,

Starving Like the People.

Isaiah 50:2

God spoke:Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? By my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst.

Matthew 8:2

… and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’

Words of Grace For Today

When Julius travelled to the south, climbing the steep cliffs and crossing the miles of barren rock, he found (as he had heard he would) a community of people so poor and poorly prepared for anything that would come their way that it astounded everyone who saw their community that they had survived this long.

Julius stopped at house after house offering to help heal anyone who was sick, to share words of encouragement, to offer advice on how to prepare better for the winter yet to come, and more desperately to increase their food stores if just a bit. Yet at every house he stopped at, he was told that he could not help them, that they would have to make do such as life was for them. He could move on if we knew what was good for him.

So he moved on to the next house, and the next, and the next, and …. After finding almost every house in the community he turned back north for the journey home that would take him through two nights.

He reached the barren rocks and stopped for that first night. As he setup camp and started to prepare for his light meal, such as it was, for he was nearly out of food himself, unwilling to take anything from such a poor community, a voice called out.

He stopped, surprised and then astounded as one of the community he’d just visited cried out to him to help them. He went, met the person, and heard that a house outside the community, a house he had not found was over-filled with people all sick, cast out of the community. The wanted to be healed, if he could take the time to help them.

So he went.

He saw even in the dark of night with the few lights from burning torches.

He diagnosed them with a simple malady of fungus.

He showed them how to grind up the root of a plant that grew nearly everywhere around them, to boil it in a tea. Within a day they would notice a difference as they started to heal. They scoffed at him and told him he must leave to that he did not become sick, too. They insisted.

So he left, camping not far away.

The next day as he was a short ways across the barren rock plateau, he heard a cry again.

He turned to see a young boy of about 11 running towards him. He stopped. The boy who he’d noticed among the sick, already had started to heal. Then the boy danced towards him, knelt in front of him, and begged him to allow him to come with him.

After a long conversation Julius sent the boy back home, instructing him to help the others. He also promised that he would return before the harvest, and then each year at least once, and begin teaching the boy to be a wise healer for his own people, and anyone who was in need.

Fire!

You Want A Fire!

No!!

Say It Ain’t So!

Monday, May 8, 2023

CTV Photo https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-to-give-wildfire-update-friday-morning-1.6385732

Forest On Fire Wipes Out Everything In It’s Path,

With Nothing To Stop It!

Exodus 3:14

God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’

Romans 8:31

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Words of Grace For Today

Tinder dry brown grasses and dead wood in the forest lay bare waiting. The snow had melted quickly in the last week until none was left anywhere. And then the fools would cause havoc, along with lightening strikes that could come at any time, so charged was the atmosphere. And more than a few wildfires had already run through communities less prepared and protected than Julius’, built as it was between two rivers east and west, with bare ground kept bare forming fire-stopping strips on the north side. The sheer rock cliffs up to the plateau of bare stone extending for miles on south completed their protected area. Still, inside their own fields and woods everyone still had to be extra careful. It had been so hot lately thankfully no one thought of even starting fire, not for anything.

In the waking hours Julius smelled smoke from a fire. He knew it started yesterday on the far side of the river, so they were safe. But the smoke had left his nose plugged and his throat dry through the sleeping hours in the dark. So he got up to check the horizon. It was all clear. And it was cool, downright chilly at 7⁰ with a slight breeze. It would warm up. But now Julius was chilled, so he the idea came to him, maybe a fire this morning.

Then all sides and voices in his mind and heart started to through out their various exclamations. What, with these dangerously dry conditions!! Well, it is in a protected stove and a chimney with a top to deflect any sparks downward. But consider everyone! What if it gets away from you! Just one spark and the whole community could be burned to the ground. Houses gone. Crops gone. Trees gone. Food stores gone. The summer and winter storms would level everything! Where would they go? Would anyone survive? Remember the Fisigners! Only one family survived, and that by sheer luck that they ran the right way! But food must be prepared. It’s been three days without proper food. He would invite others to come and cook on his fire if they wished to share the fire. His setup was a bit better than most. That’s for the good of the community! Really! You’re just cold! Yes, I am cold. And I am old! And the cold hurts, for which there is no cure except heat, so there will be a fire. Now quiet all, for I must not make a mistake or it could all go really wrong too quickly to stop. And it was quiet.

Then, having decided, he started a fire to boil water for his breakfast and then to heat up a mix that would be meals for him for the next few days. Today, a bonus, would be a hot meal.

As he prepared his breakfast hot drink, his neighbours started to show up, knowing they were welcome to use Julius’ fire, for the invitation was an open one to all to come and share all he had, especially a ‘safe’ fire in just these kinds of conditions.

As each came, they placed their water or food on the stove, and shared a blessing with Julius: May God who is, be with us always. To which he responded: If God is for us, who is against us?

Answer

My Cry!

Saturday, May 6, 2023

When It Is All Darkness,

Getting Darker,

To Whom Do We Turn?

Psalms 18:6-7

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because God was angry.

Mark 4:38

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’

Words of Grace For Today

As he travelled, studying and practising healing on those who came to him desperate for help, Julius came across this fragment of writing.

Last night the river rose another 2 meters. It’s now 6 meters over flood levels. Both bridges to town are covered and the only way to town is up the point of the valley’s junction, up and across the prairie fields (through two cattle fences -but that is much better than up the old railroad grade winding up to the prairie) to the road to the power station. Then back towards town, but then further away to reach the road that goes across the top of the dam and finally on 39 into town, all told more than 45 minutes instead of the usual 5 minutes. The yard, the old house, the drive and the well are all flooded. If tonight the river rises again even another meter this house will flood like all the neighbours have already in the last two weeks. What will we do then? Will we have power? Will the house wash away? Will we be washed away as well? It’s been so many days now, each with a new report of it getting worse with new threats and new losses. I’ve cried for help so many times. I’m out of voice to cry.

Julius knew this had been just the beginning of the angry climate. Now they were fortunate to live in a place high enough and stable enough that threats were infrequent, only 50 or so a year. One neighbour of their community had fled from an area not even that far away, a community called Fisigner, when a river had flooded and taken 10 homes in the first hour. Everyone left had run. They had looked for other survivors whenever they met other people, or as Julius travelled about, but there were no news of any Fisigner survivors.

Julius thought, what could they do if, when the called to God to be saved, God answered with anger and more violent storms and floods and wildfires and earthquakes. Then he remembered how Jesus woke from his resting in that fishing boat with Peter and the others. The seas had churned and threatened their very lives, yet Jesus was calm. He spoke and the water and the wind were calmed.

Julius decided he would remember that as God’s answer to their pleas.

Great Works

In A Single Day

For Everyone.

Friday, May 5, 2023

Finding Our Way,

Our Wondrously Blessed Way

Through Each Day.

Zechariah 3:9

For on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day.

1 John 2:2

… and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Words of Grace For Today

It is a great challenge to forgive someone who has done great damage to one’s self.

Consider the murder of one’s loved ones.

Consider the foreign ruler who with no just cause invades one’s country and decimates one’s community and livelihood and security … and peace.

Consider the liar who spreads lies and those who believe and retell such lies, until one’s reputation is destroyed and one’s way of life has become impossible leaving one living in the street or bush.

Consider the corrupt police who kill people without recourse. Or the corrupt judge who sentences innocent people to jail and makes decisions that are not even supported by the lies brought as ‘evidence’ to court.

The people so traumatized and ruined by such evil doings is nothing new. It goes back to the beginning of human times. It will continue until there are no more humans to do such things to others. One such new story really is of no interest to most people, since the injustices only can continue to happen when and because almost all people accept these injustices as ‘part of the woodwork’ of life, tolerated as long as they are not directed against them, or protested against (but only by marginalized people, to whom people simply do not listen to.)

God knows all these stories, from the beginning of time to the end of time. God knows such evil destroys not only the victims but the perpetrators. The best of life is still possible for the victims, if they are able to forgive the perpetrators (which is not to simply tolerate that such injustices continue, far from it.) The best of life is only possible for the perpetrators, if they recognize they are forgiven and are on that basis able to amend their lives.

So God provides all that for us, makes it possible.

God forgives everyone, from the beginning of time to the end of time. God makes it possible for us to forgive as well, especially to forgive ourselves. And God makes it possible for us to amend our lives so that we can live lives blessed to be blessings for others.

God accomplishes this again and again in a single day for us all.

What will we do in a single day to forgive the perpetrators who have destroyed our lives, to amend our lives, to share this abundant life with others, and to give God thanks for making a blessed life possible for us?

Valuable

All

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Some See

The Dark Night

Stealing Away The Day,

Some See

The Moon Setting,

Some See It All,

Including All the Holy People

On Earth

Leviticus 19:2

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Ephesians 1:12

so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Julius spent all his spare time after he decided to become a healer learning from anyone everything they knew about healing. It was not insubstantial, and the wisest words he learned were spoken by one who took in people suffering from inexplicable illnesses. Their bodies functioned completely normally, sometimes better than most. But their minds were in various states of jumble and seemingly malfunctioning, at least according to what everyone else expected.

This woman, or was she a man, it was hard to tell really, said clearly that what people most needed to hear was that they were valuable and held in great esteem for just being who they were. After all it is from the ones we expect the least that the most unexpected discoveries and advances are made. She took him around to meet with her guests as she called them. Seth heard voices and sometimes exploded in frustrated anger at everyone around. But they had learned, and he had learned, that these would pass, and he could easily go or be taken to a safe space and throw his fits there. During those fits ideas would come to him, sometimes with stark clarity, sometime muddled, and he would record them as best he could. Often his ideas were obvious insights into how they could all improve their living in this Kur, as they called it, and old word for a place of curing and healing.

Zephania sat most of the day, seemingly staring into space. She would say she really did not know time, yet the images she drew and the words she used to describe their Kur, the world around them, the whole planet, and parts of the universe, even the settlement in the Andromeda galaxy that no one had heard from for as long as anyone knew, were astounding. Though she seemed not to be present, she was even more present than anyone else. When they needed to remember something from the days at Kur, they would ask her and she could recount everything in exact detail, even things they knew she had not witnessed with her own eyes.

They started to record as much as they could, especially the information from the AndromedaB Settlement as they called it. Lots of that was gibberish to them.

Julius asked to read the records. He was amazed at the details about healing that her record contained. He learned more reading Zephenia’s journal than anything else.

From that day onward, whenever Julius met with people, he began by telling them how valuable they each were, and how much they could contribute to help everyone live better lives. He started using an old word, “You are holy.”

Orienting

Ourselves

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Through the Thick of Life,

Christ’ Light Orients Us

To Life Abundant,

by giving life to others

Genesis 28:16

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’

Luke 24:32

They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’

Gospel for Today: John 10:1-10

‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’

Words of Grace For Today

Jacob wakes and is convinced (after his struggle with the angel) that God is in this place, and he did not notice.

The disciples on their way to Emmaus walk along with a stranger who opens their eyes to the truth, from the scriptures and all of life. Yet they do not recognize this person, not until he shares bread and wine with them and in the eating the recognize that this is Jesus, risen from the dead.

Many times in life we do not recognize God or God’s works, as we are so engaged in trying to ‘fix’ our own lives, and to compensate for our sins and the sins of so many people around us, and who have gone before us.

On this, the Good Shepherd Sunday, we read that Jesus is the door, a door that is always open to us all, each and every one of us, though we certainly do not deserve such a welcome in the flock of Jesus. We also read that Jesus has the voice that we recognize, sometimes not in our busy minds and hearts, but always in the foundation of our being.

By this voice, by this Word, our lives can be oriented. Orient, the East.

Martin Luther called it the ‘morning land’.

As by the sunrise of each morning we orient ourselves for the day, so by Jesus’ Voice and Word, by Jesus’ Light rising out of every darkness, we can orient ourselves, not by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

Thus oriented for this day, we have plenty of work ahead of us, sharing all Jesus’ openness to us sinners, God’s grace, and the precious gifts of the Holy Spirit to share with so many people.