Category: Trees

Wishing!

Wishing But Left Waiting

Monday, December 18, 2023

In Midwinter We Can Wish For the Golden Light Of Summer,

But There Ain’t Nothing We Can Do To Make It Come.

Daniel 2:21

He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

Luke 1:52

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly….

…

Words of Grace For Today

Not just a few people whom I have known more than deserve the wish that Jesus would come to judge them, cutting through all their lies and false rumours and self justifications for the evil they work against others. Then they would be stopped in their tracks and their victims would be restored to life as it was before they so destroyed them with lies and abuse and all kinds of evil.

For while these abusers and evil doers are still all too active in their evil doing, they have long since ceased to live, for their spirits have been taken by the Evil One, and they walk as shells in motion without heart and soul.

Jesus come!

But

There is nothing in that wish,

not for those wishing it,

nor nothing that stops the evil nor restores the victims.

So we wait.

So we wait and can do nothing to bring Jesus’ judgment and healing.

For there is nothing to be done to stop the evil doers and their evil, nor to restore their victims.

So we wait.

So we wait, so oft impatiently, for there is no other hope for things to be made right.

So we wait, and pray: come Lord Jesus, come!

…

until we remember that through forgiveness God heals the victims of evil, and the perpetrators as well.

So we pray, come Lord Jesus, come! Forgive us, heal us, and if you must, forgive those who still work evil against so many victims, helpless to defend themselves, except that they rest in your presence

here already today,

for while there is nothing to do to bring Jesus to come,

we can recognize Jesus is already here,

among us,

healing us,

even when we cannot pray that our abusers would be forgiven,

even when we hope the Holy Spirit would bring our abusers to amend their lives.

So we wait, and pray

our thanks that Jesus is already come, is here, and will come again to judge both the living and the dead.

Smaller and Smaller

Sunday, December 17, 2023

The Pile of Thin Pieces, to Fill Between.

Everything provides some heat.

Numbers 23:19

God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

2 Corinthians 1:18-19

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been ‘Yes and No.’ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not ‘Yes and No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

Out to stoke the fire, and split some short chunks of wood.

Amazing how things get smaller in the process of heating with wood.

First there is a tree, tall and strong, which dies or gets knocked over by the winds, ferocious as they are at times.

The tall and strong tree loses the ability to grow branches and the old ones are the first to break off, some when the tree comes crashing down, all 2000 to 3000 pounds of it.

Then slowly the ants and other processes eat at the tree until it is no more than dust dissolving into the dirt of the ground, unless …

unless I find it and cut off the branches that will be in the way, and sometimes cutting the log into two or three long pieces so I can pull it out of the woods.

In the yard I buck the log into short pieces, short enough to fit in the wood stove. Those full-stove-sized pieces get stacked for cold days, when I toss them into the stove, they burn producing the heat I need and end up as ash, which collects at the bottom of the stove, and from there I dump them in a pile to be used for various things.

There are all those not quite full-stove-sized pieces, which I set aside to split, or thinner sticks that I gather to cut up and stack for filler beside fatter logs.

Today those short, fat pieces were the ones I split (or chopped as it were) into pieces to cram in the wood stove to burn when I do not need the maximum heat the stove can produce. The climate change weather this winter has mostly been that kind of cold, barely below zero, not yet colder than -15⁰.

…

The Devil goes at us like I go at logs for heat, except the Devil’s purposes for us, cut into ever smaller pieces of anything good is to merely destroy every good thing God created.

Thankfully, God, knowing more force would only reduce us to smaller pieces for the Devil’s work, uses steadfast love and forgiveness to rescue us, bind us, heal us, and make us able to live out that same love and forgiveness for other people.

Another day, getting cut up smaller, but healed and sent out ….

Ready?

Ready of not, God’s working on us.

Oil

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Too Often,

Dark

is as Bright as Our Days Get,

Until …

Psalm 97:11

Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.

Matthew 25:1-2

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. …

…

Words of Grace For Today

I’ve never been sure about the bridesmaids.

Not in Jesus’ parable, nor in real life for that matter.

What are they up to, anyway?

Meeting the Bridegroom in the dark, needing lanterns, not being admitted if their lanterns have run out of oil.

I understand not wanting to wait in the darkness.

But waiting?

…

Though it is what life is like for us always, waiting, waiting, waiting for salvation,

for God to save us since we’ve left ourselves no avenue for hope, other than God. (Not that there ever was any other avenue. We just like to think at first that we can find our own way out of trouble.)

So we wait for Light and Joy to dawn,

from the darkness,

not unlike the days growing shorter ever more

and more

and more

until we barely see the sun all day.

Waiting

waiting

waiting

for rescue.

Do we really need to bring extra ‘oil’ with us for our ‘lanterns’?

Cannot the Light of Christ guide us?

Let us hope so, because I’m short of oil already,

as you are probably, too,

even if you do not realize it yet.

So another day begins,

begging

God

for

mercy.

A Maze

Or

Amazing

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

The Maze of Bush Can Trap Us.

God Sees A Way Through For Us

…

Forgiveness.

Psalm 139:4

Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

1 Corinthians 4:5

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Too many people think they know everything.

‘If everyone would just listen to me, I could straighten them out!’

…

or so they all say.

And then go off doing all sorts of crazy things, based on lies and partial truths, and biased views of things that might have, or might not actually have, happened.

Thankfully God sees, knows, and will judge all according to truth. No partial truths, false confessions, or desperate defence strategies needed. God knows everything already.

Thankfully.

So there is that to look forward to becoming plainly evident to all those people who think they know everything,

and

actually have it all wrong.

So we can rest, peacefully, at the end of each day, and step confidently into the beginning of a new day,

assured that God not only knows everything,

but judges us with compassion and steadfast love.

Just another day in the bushes.

The Only One

The Only One Listening

Monday, December 11, 2023

A logging road in the Klanawa Valley on western Vancouver Island divides two landscapes: a cutblock on the right, and old-growth trees that are part of a wildlife protection area on the left. Tara Carman/CBC
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/the-forest-beside-the-clear-c

No One Listens and Cutblocks Eat Away at Our Precious,

Climate Saving, Old Growth Forests

Psalm 38:9-11

O Lord, all my longing is known to you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction, and my neighbours stand far off.

1 John 5:14

And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Job knew it, as many have since.

It is that experience that everyone and everything has turned against one, even life itself, and there is no one that hears. No one that listens. No one that understands. No one that cares.

Except

That God hears, listens, understands, cares and

and

and

God even responds, providing what we need to survive even those dark times.

And survive we do, until the sun shines brightly again in our lives and we have all the listening, hearing, understanding, and caring we require

in order to

Give God thanks with our every breath.

Wonders

Wonders of Wonders

Sunday, December 10, 2023

In Our Faces Wonders,

and Almost Hidden Wonders …

All Leave Us Awestruck …

Deuteronomy 3:24

O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your might; what god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds and mighty acts like yours!

1 Corinthians 12:6

… and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Many people through the ages have looked in awe at things found in nature, as huge as the sky reaching across the universe or as tiny as the parts of an atom, and given God credit for creating an awesome universe for us to live in.

As well we have experienced first hand the power of storms, cold and hot, with violent, destructive winds; we have experienced the immense stillness of a calm day from atop a mountain looking out over snow, trees, lakes, rivers and oceans; we have experienced the fresh crisp air of a sunny winter day, and the warm sunrise of an early summer morning; we have marvelled at how life returns in the spring to the plants, and how life begins in animals and in our own children;

and we have been in awe of all that God has created.

There is, though, no greater wonder to behold, than God’s forgiveness, which allows us to heal after we are hurt or have hurt others.

This is the wonder of wonders,

that gives us renewed life each morning, noon, and night.

The Light of Christ

Guiding …

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Into Our Darkness,

Jesus Enters as an Infant

and Shines!

Isaiah 60:20

Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Hiking in the coastal forests, up and down hills, the tree canopy covering any view of the sky or the ocean or the mountains further inland, we came upon a lake. It was not a sandy shore. Rather the only access to the water was down a slope of a huge rock that stretched at least 20 meters wide and 40 down to the water. It was growing dark but we rested. The two young boys romped a bit. I, the only one of us parents with navigational skills, explored further for where the trail picked up. There was not a trace.

Distances were hard to gauge but we’d parked one car about 5 km further down the coast where the trail crossed near the edge of a small coastal town not far from our home. The other we left where we’d started hiking mid to late afternoon in a spot, one of many along the 186 km long trail, where one could drive, park, and jump on the trail for a shorter or longer hike, instead of taking the whole 186 in one long, multi-day hike.

But there was no trail to follow, not in either direction around the lake, nor back in any direction where we’d come. Cell phones were a new thing and I had one with me, but there was no service, not for the last kilometre or so.

Finally I hiked back to where there was service, called a friend, and even he had no clue where the trail went. He’d not be on this section enough to know where we were.

So I headed back in growing darkness, mountain lions frequenting the area as well as bears, navigation with a flashlight in spots where I needed to see, and walking in the dark where I could save battery power. This was long before LED’s so the flashlight would last maybe another half hour. …

Life has many such experiences, where serious darkness overwhelms us, where we lose the path forward, where danger could be just around any bend, behind any tree.

That darkness is the darkness of the soul.

That’s the darkness that God sent Jesus to be born as one of us, to live among us teaching and healing, and to save us with the sacrifice of his life. The light of Jesus’ life, teachings, healings, and death shines bright in every darkness, guiding us onward even when we become lost in the darkness, overwhelmed with the evil around us, alone against those that would lie and serve the devil in so many ways, in order to destroy us.

Thank God for that light!

Thank God each morning, noon, and night for that light.

…

in the dark the trail approached that big lakeside rock, winding it’s way around the steep uphill side of it and the hill that extended above it to the right. I needed the flashlight to find my way through a darker patch, unsure if there were rocks I would stumble on, and there

to my left on a tree was a trail marker, pointing to the left, down and back around a switchback, down to a creek with rocks to step across it and a clear trail that headed around the lake on that side.

I backtracked, continued on the ‘wrong’ trail to the lakeside, collected the other three, and in the dark we wound our way around that lake, through the trees as the moon rose lighting our way past more lakes and through more trees, until we arrived at the car, parked and waiting for us.

For the Most

For the Most Vulnerable

Monday, November 27, 2023

The Spirit Dances

Each Morning, Noon and Night.

Only By the Spirit Working In Us

Can We Dance Jesus’ Dance.

Zechariah 7:10

… do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.

Ephesians 4:20

That is not the way you learned Christ!

…

Words of Grace For Today

God calls us many times in many ways to do justice for the most vulnerable, in Zechariah named as the widow, the orphan, the alien and the poor.

How do we learn?

How do we learn to do justice?

How do we learn Christ?

Is learning to do justice the same as learning Christ?

…

No, they are not the same.

They do overlap.

To do justice is for the most part to follow Christ’ commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength, and to love our neighbours (and enemies) as ourselves.

But not all of ‘doing justice’ is what Christ calls us to.

And just ‘doing justice’ hardly begins to encompass all Christ calls us to.

For Christ calls us to love. To love as God loves. To love even when it costs us. And that moves us into and then also far beyond just doing justice for others.

Yet how can we learn to do justice?

Study, practice, and make errors … and more study, more practice, and more errors and (it keeps repeating, since we never get it completely and what we did yesterday does not provide justice for the most vulnerable today.)

And how can we learn Jesus?

Some would say it is the same. We study, practice, make errors, and repeat.

Those who have listened to the saints will know that will never even get us close, for the key to Jesus is

that we cannot learn Jesus on our own at all.

We only come to know Jesus when the Holy Spirit moves us to.

So we pray each day, come Lord Jesus, walk with us, let the Holy Spirit guide our thoughts, hearts and spirits, our dreams, visions, and hopes, and most of all our actions. Let them be reflections of Jesus to one another, and especially the most vulnerable.

And then we study, contemplate, plan, dream, and act as if it were all up to us, humbly remembering the Holy Spirit will guide and empower us.

If Only …

If Only It Were So Simple!

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Thinking We Can Make Things Beautiful On Our Own,

Ruins All Our Efforts

Exodus 24:7

Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’

James 1:22

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Yes, we will do it!

We will be obedient!

(until we are not, of course, which is always bound to happen, since it is built into us humans to explore, push the limits, and rebel against authority.)

Oh, if James were anything other than a straw gospel, one that is blown away by even the slightest wind of adversity.

Then we could not just be hearers but doers as well of the Gospel.

But

life is much more complicated than that,

and so much more interesting.

We not only need to listen and hear and attempt to do, we need to start by confessing that we cannot on our own follow Jesus’ way of self-sacrificial love.

We need to beg for help from the Holy Spirit.

So, also this day,

we wish to be followers of Jesus, doers of God’s Grace, obedient servants of God Will,

but since we know we cannot ever,

we confess our sins,

trust we are forgiven,

and move into the day

knowing we are fully dependent on God to do anything good or worthwhile.

Just beggars, we are,

just beggars,

by Grace alone, saintly beggars.

Visions and Realities

Friday, November 24, 2023

Visions of Grace,

Brighter in the Darkness of Our Realities,

Than the Moon on a Clear Winter Night.

Zechariah 13:9

And I will put this third into the fire, refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’

Revelation 21:3-4

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

The day is coming, when …

The day is coming, when will it come?!

The day is coming, when death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more!

When will it come!!?

That is a vision of God’s promises brought to completion for us all.

Meanwhile the realities we face are obvious:

It is as if we are in the smelters cup, over the fire, dross (which we have so dearly accumulated and attached ourselves to) is burning off, and we are poured into moulds of things precious and of use …

well,

of use to God, and maybe not to our worldly ways of evaluating things.

The realities of our daily lives are challenging to say the least, just to survive

as

God’s saints

pulled and pushed and cajoled and seduced by temptations to trust not in God’s good graces, but rather in our own efforts to secure life for ourselves.

Thank heaves we have visions

of God walking with us,

among us,

working for us,

completing some of the Promises God makes each day,

also this day.