How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! This is the path I walk as many days as possible. It is isn’t a famous place, just a walking trail close to home. Sometimes I walk it with a friend and sometimes alone. I walk in all seasons and a few times I have even walked in the rain. Each time I walk I see new things - foggy days and clear, blue skies, beautiful colors in the fall, wildflowers in the spring and summer, and frost crystals on the grass in winter. I didn’t use to notice these things. My camera has taught me to see amazing things in my everyday world. The more time I spend in nature, the more I stand in awe of God Creator.
It is interesting to me that as I have come to have a deep desire to be in nature I have also developed a deeper desire to study God’s word. I don’t think that it is a coincidence. I know that as the Holy Spirit used my camera to show me God’s world he has also put new scholars in my path. My view of the scriptures has grown and now I have learned to read them with awe and wonder. I have learned to see the intricate patterns of the writing and the art of the Biblical authors. I have learned to value the importance of story and how the Bible is God’s story of redemption through Jesus Christ. And in the midst of all the wonder of nature and the Scripture is the most amazing thing of all, God walks with me. In the words of David who I think must have first learned about God through his time as a shepherd, “when I awake I am still with you.” Prayer Creator God Keep me filled with awe and wonder of your world and your word for wonder is the beginning of worship. Amen
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I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? I live where I can see mountains everyday and can drive to the top of one in a short time. I think I have come to take them for granted - something that is always there. The ancient Israelites didn’t take mountains for granted. They saw mountains as special places where God meets with man. The scriptures are filled with stories of humans meeting God on mountains; remember the stories of Abraham and Isaac, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus and Peter, James, and John.
Recently I had an experience on a mountain that changed the way I view them. On our trip to the Pacific Northwest I made a reservation for us to stay at the the Paradise Inn at the foot of Mt. Rainier. I had never been so close to a mountain so large. It was majestic and beautiful in many different ways. The rock and glaciers above the tree line are strong and foreboding. Large conifers encircle the mountain at the tree line. The meadows below are filled with color in both spring, summer, and fall and covered with snow in the winter. One of the mornings we were there I got up just before sunrise and walked in the cool, damp air to the foot of the mountain. There was a snow cloud at the very top of the mountain and I even felt a few flakes. The cloudy day left a pink Alpenglow on the mountain and made the autumn meadows at the foot explode with color. I stood there amazed at the beauty and power before my eyes. I have no words that can adequately describe my experience that morning. I felt that I was in God’s very presence. All that was left to do was to worship silently at the foot of this great mountain. I worship a great and mighty God who each day is the source of my help if I only look to him. This experience will remain in my heart as a special gift, a reminder of how much the Lord, maker of mountains, loves me and wants to meet with me each day. Where and when do you look for help? Prayer Lord, Maker of Mountains May the mountains remind us of the love you have for each of us. Help us to look up and see you as the source of everything we need. Amen We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. In the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts we are told of how Peter told his story to a group of people different from himself. Cornelius was a Roman Centurion who had sent for Peter at the bidding of a messenger from God. When Peter arrived he found people eager and waiting to hear his story. He didn’t give a three point sermon or a detailed theology of Christ. He told them what he had witnessed as he walked with Christ and his resurrection. He simply told the story of his experience with Christ.
This photograph of a tree is part of my story. Even though I had driven past this tree for many years, I still remember the cold winter day when I first noticed its beauty. The tree isn’t in a park or a special place where people go to specifically to see the wonders of nature. It is just in a field along a heavily traveled road. I was struck by the beauty of the bare branches, their graceful lines and intricate patterns. This seeing, this noticing of the beauty of things all around me, was the beginning of my story of the impact of photography on my relationship with God. For a long time I just enjoyed the process of taking images and learning about my camera. I would share a few images with my family and friends. After a time, I developed a desire to do something with all the images and the stories that went with them. As a result I began this blog as a way to tell my story of how God has used photography to lead me to a deeper understanding of him. We all have stories. Those of us who are Christian have a story of how we witness God in our lives. It won’t be like Peter’s story; indeed it won’t be like anyone else’s story. But like Peter we are called to tell our story in whatever way God has given us. For me, right now, it with my camera and this blog. My blog is just one of many blogs on the Internet. It isn’t famous or spectacular and only has a handful of regular viewers, but still I know that it has impacted others. I encourage you to share your story in whatever way God has given you. There is someone who needs to hear the story that only you can tell. Prayer Lord God, Creator of Stories Thank you for the stories of you that we find in your Word and your world. Give us courage to share our stories so that others may learn of you. Our world so desperately needs to hear your story now. Amen Sing praises to God, sing praises! When I think about kings I imagine palaces filled with gold, stunning in their beauty and filled with light. The palace of Our King is so much greater than any building for our Great King created the universe. He has given us a beautiful place to life and fills our world at this time of year with the brilliant colors of autumn. As the sun warms our hearts God's love shines in our lives with the golden light of autumn.
Prayer Great King This day we bow to you and seek to serve you with our obedience. We sing your praise in the golden light of autumn. Amen And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. In our understanding of the universe, light comes from the sun. The ancient Hebrew understanding of light was different. They looked up each morning and noticed that there was light before the sun rose. Seeing the difference between our understanding of light and the ancient Hebrew understanding helps us see so much more what the Biblical author was trying to communicate. Genesis 1 is the way for the Biblical author to explain who God is. God is the source of light. On the first day of creation light and darkness are given names - day and night. God establishes time and brings order out of chaos. In God’s light we see light. It is his light that dispels our darkness. As you read God’s word you will see time and again this description of God as light until in Revelation the story is complete. Darkness is forever gone - conquered by the light of God. We have this hope, even in our darkest night - “Let there be light.”
Prayer Father of Light, Flood our lives this day with your light so we may be beacons of light in our world. Amen Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. After the introductory sentence of Genesis 1:1, the creation story begins with a description of what the world was like before the earth was created; an empty and dark place with only waters. For the Israelites and other ancient cultures, with only little physical experience and a limited understanding of large bodies of water, the waters were a place of fear, a place of utter orderlessness,and chaos.
The story of creation is a story of how God brought order out of chaos. As the story continues we will see that God will always be in the business of bringing order out of chaos, light out of darkness. God can still take our darkest, stormiest, and most chaotic times and bring order to them. So in these dark and chaotic days when we have lost the ability to create order on our own we trust in a God of order, a God who creates beauty out of chaos. Prayer Creator and King, Lighten our darkness and hover over our hearts as You hovered over the chaotic waters. Bring order to our lives. Amen In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. When I think of the heavens I think of the starry sky. This is because I have grown up watching space flights and moon walks. Science has shaped my understanding of the universe, my cosmology. I see the world as a planet in space in orbit around the sun, one of billions of stars. We don’t even realize we are looking at Genesis 1 through our cosmology, our knowledge of science, which is so different from the cosmology of the biblical authors. As a result the discussion around Genesis 1 has become contentious and controversial filled with anger, misunderstandings and miscommunication.
One of the reasons that I have resisted studying Genesis is too much contention This has kept me from really seeing its beauty and the message about God it is trying to tell. We tend to try to describe Genesis 1 as being about the time and material process of the universe’s origin and in so doing we miss what the biblical authors were trying to communicate, the nature and purpose of the world God created. So to really understand Genesis we will need to understand the cosmology of the biblical authors. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Our knowledge of the physical universe is not the same thing as wisdom about the nature and purpose of the world God created. It can seem difficult and even a little scary to look at Genesis from the cosmology of the biblical authors and the cultures in which they lived. I have started on this journey but I am following others. I want to share two resources I am using. One I have mentioned before, the Bible Project. Another one is Robin Parry’s book, “The Biblical Cosmos: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Weird and Wonderful World of the Bible.” I am sure there will be others along the way. Over the next few posts I hope to just give you a glimpse into what I am learning and how that has led me to a deeper understanding of who God is and what it means to serve him - and maybe to encourage you to take up your own study of even the hard parts of the Old Testament. Prayer Creator God Give us an understanding of Genesis that will help us see the beauty of the beginning chapters of the Bible and develop in us a deeper relationship with you. Amen In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I am grateful that I have been able to see many beautiful parts of our world, mountains, lakes, oceans, forests, and prairies. So many times the beauty and the majesty of God’s world leaves me amazed and speechless. I remember when I first saw the Grand Tetons from Colter Bay and couldn’t stop taking pictures. Every time I looked through my camera that was more beauty.
Since the pandemic I have missed being with my camera in God’s world. There won’t be a road trip this year as in the past three years and even traveling to the mountains close to home has been difficult. So instead of spending time with my camera I have spent time studying God’s word, more specifically the creation stories in Genesis. In the past I have spent more time studying the New Testament. I saw the Old Testament, especially Genesis, as something that was hard to understand and the source of huge, mean-spirited debates. Gratefully I have found some great resources that have helped me change that view. I am coming to appreciate how important understanding Genesis is to understanding Jesus. Genesis is an introduction to the great story of how much God loves us and his world. The first words of Genesis, so familiar that even non-Christians can quote, are so important to our understanding of God. The first line of any literary work is crucial to understanding the whole of the work. It sets the stage for everything that will happen in the story. And so it is with the first words of the Bible, an introduction to the whole of God’s story of who he is and who we are. I know that I have come to take these words for granted with a "so what” kind of reaction and never thought about their importance as an introduction to God. In these words we get our first insight into who God is - Creator. There is much more to learn about God in the creation stories of Genesis and I hope to share a little of my journey with you. Prayer Creator God Open our eyes to the wonder and beauty of your world and your word. Thank you for the magnificent and beautiful words that we read in Genesis and the insight they give us into who you are and who we are. Amen |
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Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan