Jesus Our Arch Stone

This stone arch bridge near Stoddard, New Hampshire, was built without using any mortar.  The bridge is sustained by the expert shaping of its arch stones.  I’m thinking that the arch stones are like the cornerstones of the bridge; if one is bad or off, the whole thing falls apart.  Jesus is the cornerstone (the arch stone) of our hope and faith in God.  I don’t think he’s ever going to fail or let us who hope in him down!  

Covered Bridges & More

This is a picture of a covered bridge near Bennington, VT.  Folks like me from Nebraska think of covered bridges as quaint and romantic.  However, the reason they built bridges with a cover over them was so that they would last longer.  It was all about practicality.  Guess what? It worked.  Most of the covered bridges are between 150 and 200 years old! The scriptures declare that God’s banner (covering) over us is love.  God’s desire is to protect us and to preserve us, that we may abide with God forever! 

The Sound of Many Waters

The sound of many waters is an apt description of a visit to Niagara Falls.  This is a picture of the American side of Niagara Falls, viewed from the Canadian side.  Isn’t that ironic?  The American side is best viewed from another country.  Maybe, we who have been born and raised in America don’t always see the blessings and benefits that we have been given.  The same can be true on a spiritual level as well.  It’s so easy to take for granted all that we have.  The sound of many waters, that’s what you hear as you marvel at the beauty and wonder of Niagara Falls. The Psalmist says that God is like the sound of many waters.  Maybe what the Psalmist had in mind was that as we meditate and ponder on the majesty and greatness of God, that the awesome sound of God’s thundering love and grace towards us, would drown out all the other noise.  That, my friend, is something we should never take for granted!            

Horseshoe Bend by Page, Arizona

Just Around The Bend

By:  David A. Bigley

Just around the bend

Are countless adventures to explore

Just around the bend

God’s grace is waiting to show us so much more

Just around the bend

Are things that will cause our heart to leap

Just around the bend

Are treasures that we’ll hold close and keep

The smile and laughter of children

The gift of relationships and love

The special sense of God’s presence

All given to us from above

Life is filled with unknown twists and turns

Not only has God promised to be around every bend

God is with us each step of the way

Because God’s our closest friend!

Showers of Blessing in the Desert

This is a picture of one of the many arches in Arches National Park in Moab, UT.  Moab is in a desert.  Nothing much grows in the desert.  When we were there in June of 2006, we were told that the average rain fall for the month of June was about ½ inch.  The few days we were in Moab, we experienced a dust storm that roared through the valley, and the very next day an inch of rain fell in less than half an hour.  The streets were flooded.  Sometimes we go through what seems like a desert period in our spiritual lives.  It doesn’t seem like much is happening.  We may feel more dead than alive.  We may wonder where God is.  I think it’s in those times that we have the opportunity to learn what it means to live by faith in God’s care for us and not by our subjective feelings.  In the desert roots must go down deep for the vegetation to survive.  To flourish in the sometimes arid conditions of this life, our roots of faith also must go down deep into the wellsprings of God’s professed love and faithfulness towards us.  It rains, even in the desert.  There shall be showers of blessings.    

Peaks and Valleys

I took this picture a few years ago as we crossed over into Canada to view Glacier National Park from the Canadian side.  The snow capped mountain peaks are breathtakingly beautiful and majestic, yet nothing can grow above the tree line.  It’s in the valley, watered by the mountain snow melt, and bathed in the life giving warmth of the sun, that flowers bloom and crops grow to feed and nourish us.  Life is a combination of peaks and valleys.  The peaks are those times of inspiration when our spirits soar to new heights of understanding, clarity and gratitude.  We know we are loved.  We know God is good.  From our vantage point on the mountain peak, we can see it so clearly.  However, it is in the valleys of life with all of its ups and downs, its trials, and disappointments, that we grow and produce the fruit of God’s presence within our lives.  The peaks provide the insight and inspiration so we know that we have a resource above our own as we toil in the valleys of life.  Maybe that’s why there are two peaks to every valley?  Jesus is called the lily of the valley, and he invites us to bloom with him. 

Is It Tomatoe or Tomato?

It’s that wonderful time of year when, instead of buying store bought tasteless tomatoes, I can go to my garden and pick fresh, truly vine ripened tomatoes.  I grew up on a farm and so we always had lots of fresh tomatoes in the summer time.  As a kid, the only way I’d eat sliced tomatoes was with lots of sugar on them.  When I got older I learned to eat sliced tomatoes seasoned only with salt and pepper.  Last year I experimented a bit, and came up with an olive oil dressing, which includes different herbs, that I drizzle on my sliced tomatoes.  I top it off with crumbled feta cheese and a small amount of crumbled blue cheese as well.  It is simply delicious, and now I can’t imagine eating sliced tomatoes any other way.  When the apostle Paul writes; “When I was a child, I spoke, I thought, I reasoned like a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things”, I think I know what he’s talking about.  And, it’s not about putting sugar on his tomatoes.  He’s talking about growing up in his understanding of God and practice of faith.  The essence of what Paul is saying, is that whatever is not seasoned with love is useless and indeed tasteless.  No matter how great the revelation or how intellectually deep the understanding, without love it’s worse than a store bought tomato purchased in the dead of winter.  Maybe Christian maturity is about growing to the place where we can’t imagine not being loved by God and not loving others as God loves us!