He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: The Appalachian Mountains are my home. I love seeing mountain peaks in the distance, walking on mountain trails, watching water flow over rocks in mountain streams, finding wildflowers in the spring, and seeing the beautiful colors of autumn. The mountains represent a sense of security for me. So traveling to the prairies of North and South Dakota was a very different experience. The land was flat and I could see for miles. I was surprised at how much color I could see. The sky seemed so big and there was almost a constant wind, strong enough at times to blow you down.
As the mountains represent a sense of security and home for me, the wide open spaces of the prairies came to represent a time to open wide my heart. It was hard sometimes to walk against the wind and to feel small underneath a big sky filled with clouds. The prairie reminded me of the words and mission of John the Baptist. He was preparing the way for Jesus by asking people to open wide their hearts, to repent. As we prepare for Advent we need to open wide our hearts. It isn’t easy but this is the way to see God’s salvation. How can you open wide your heart today? Prayer Messiah Jesus Blow in our hearts this day and open them wide. Forgive us the sin we see in our lives and fill our wide open hearts with your love. Amen
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But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; It was a cold day in November when I took my long lens to the birding park. I didn’t take any images of birds that day but I did take images of thistles. Even though I usually think of thistles as weeds for their prickly buds and thorns, I still took the images mostly to practice using the long lens. Oh, but when I opened the image on my computer I could hardly believe what I saw, beautiful, intricate details, a beauty I had never seen before. It is easy to see the beauty of flowers blooming in a garden but to see that beauty in weeds that day was a special experience.
It is easier to read the parables of Jesus and his words of comfort than it is to read the story of Jesus’s physical pain and hear his anguished cries of abandonment on the cross. Like seeing the prickly thistle magnified on my computer, it is only when we really look at Jesus on the cross that we see the enormity his love. When we let Jesus’s love for us pierce our hearts, as his body was pierced for our sin, we experience the beauty of God’s love. When have you taken time to look at Jesus on the cross and let his love pierce your heart? Prayer Jesus Pierce our hearts with your love and bring beauty out of our lives today. Amen Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. The first time I ever saw an eagle in the wild was at Douglas Dam. While camping there I met a group of photographers that had gathered to take picture of birds. One of the photographers showed me where the group had seen eagles. The next morning, in the exact place he pointed out, I saw the eagles. Now I know where to look and because of what I have learned about eagles from that encounter I have seen eagles at other places, like this one at Cherokee Dam. Without that help from the other photographer I never would have taken this image.
Timothy was a young leader in need of help. Paul had sent him to Ephesus to deal with several issues that were dividing the church. One piece of advice he gave to the young Timothy in his letter was to read and teach the scriptures as a part of the church’s gatherings. Paul knew that it would take regular time in the scriptures to help the church work through the disagreements and resulting conflicts. Remember that at this time many of the Christians were gentiles and had no understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. For them to understand who Jesus was it was important that Hebrews and gentiles read the scriptures together. Paul’s words of advice to Timothy are also important for us today. Sure we can read the Bible on our own, but we need the help of others to truly understand God’s word. I am so grateful for a group of friends from my church that gather regularly to read and study God’s word. We share questions that we have about difficult passages that we are reading and insights and things we have learned from commentaries and trusted teachers. Through our time together each of us has grown in our understanding of scripture. God created us to live and work in community and we need the fellowship we find in our church to see God’s mission for us in his word. How can you strengthen your study of God’s word in your community of believers? Prayer Great Teacher Thank you for my fellowship of friends who read scriptures with me, encourage me to walk closer to you, and teach me how to serve your world. Amen The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: I never appreciated the beauty of morning light or noticed how different it was from other times of day until I started taking pictures. Now I not only notice it but I get up early and search for it. On this one special day in Badlands National Park I saw the morning light totally transform the colors of the rock from the dull brown of midday to brilliant orange hues.
As David wrote these words I imagine him looking back over his life as king. Being a shepherd I am sure he had experienced the beauty of the golden light of morning. He also knew the kind of king he wanted to be. He knew that the times when he was that kind of king were times when he trusted in God’s power and served under God’s authority. He wasn’t always that kind of king but his kingship pointed to the one that would be the kind of king that would bring God’s righteousness to the world. It is King Jesus who brings the golden light of justice. The challenge for us is that now we are called, through the power of the Spirit, to bring justice to our world. It may be in small individual acts of service or larger actions with our community of faith. Either way we, in God’s power, bring the golden light of morning to our world. What will you do to bring God’s golden light to your world today? Prayer God of Light Shine in our lives the golden light of morning so that we can reflect your love and justice to our little part of your world. Amen Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. Our last hike on our last day in the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park was on the Achenbach Trail through the open prairie to an overlook on the Little Missouri River. We didn’t see anyone on the whole three mile trail. I saw the shimmering gold leaves of this tree from a distance as the path kept drawing closer to it. When I got to the tree I gently touched the leaves and just stood there for a minute to take in its beauty. I love to find trees like this. They have a kind of intricate beauty that no human can make. While I love this image, it only captures fraction of the tree’s beauty that day. It was more than worth the three mile hike to see it.
Finding wisdom is like the tree and my hike that day. I didn’t make the tree or the peaceful path on which I walked. I didn't even expect to find a tree. Wisdom is not something that we can make on our own, it is a gift from God’s word. We do have to do the walking, but spending time in God’s word gradually transforms our lives. Wisdom grows in us a tree of life - steady, sure, and beautiful. How does God’s word give you wisdom? Prayer God of Wisdom Grant us wisdom in our walk with you this day. Transform us a little more today as we read your word and spend time with you. Amen Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked We have just returned from our fourth road trip. Some call them vacations but for us they are adventures. We research, plan, and then we drive. We see things that we never expected, beauty along the road. And, for me of course, there is my photography. Our adventures are filled with long days that begin before sunrise and last until into the night, traveling on unknown roads to places that are new and unfamiliar.
Psalm 1 has become a kind of summary of what I have learned about photography and God’s word on our adventures. Both require focused study, take a long time, and require that you do things over and over again. When I first got interested in photography I would go to specific places to see specific things - a sunrise from an overlook or the big tree in the field. Now after taking many images I see beautiful things in God’s world that I didn’t plan to see. Likewise when I used to read the Bible I would read one passage looking for the main idea or reread my favorite verses. As I have learned more how to see God’s word as one story that leads to Jesus, I see things I never saw before. The world is full of beauty to photograph and there is still much to learn about photography. God’s word is vast, beautiful, and full of insight into who God is and who we are. It is there waiting on us to spend time with it, meditate on it again and again; to learn to delight in it and let it transform us. What adventures await you in God’s world and God’s word? You will find them as you take the time to meditate on both. Prayer Lord God Thank you for sunrises along new roads. Open our eyes to see the light in your word. Lead us on the adventure to learn who you are and who we are in you. Amen Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. One thing that photography has taught me is to notice things that I would have just passed by in the past - like trees. I always see them now, their leaves, the color, their shape, their surroundings. I noticed them in a special way on a recent trip through the prairies of the Dakotas. The funny thing is that this noticing of things that I used to skip over has carried over into other areas of life, especially my Bible study. Noticing new details requires that you study the cultural context and geography of the passage in a good commentary as well as reading the passage over and over again. When you do dig deep you find a richness and complexity in the details that is beautiful and insightful.
I have read the story of blind Bartimaeus many times but this time when I read it I noticed the phrase, “throwing his cloak aside.” After reading several commentaries I learned that if you lived in Jericho you would rarely ever need a cloak to keep warm. For Bartimaeus his cloak was his identity. It was where he earned his living, for as a blind man his only source of income was from the coins thrown onto his cloak. But when he met Jesus he threw it all aside - his way of life, his identity - for a new identity in Christ. He didn’t go back and get his cloak. He followed Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. What will you throw aside to meet Jesus today? Read and study the story again. What else did you notice? Prayer Father God Teach us how to truly study your word, to dig into the scriptures. Thank you for the scholars who share their knowledge and study through their writings. Give us the insight to notice the small details insights you have for us in scripture. Amen Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in. On our recent trip to the Dakotas I I learned that this part of Badlands National Park is called “The Wall.” You can follow it for 60 miles. Which each new view I saw more of its beauty and also its danger. At the beginning of each trail were prominent signs warning the hikers to beware of rattle snakes. It made me think of the story of Joshua facing the walls of Jericho. The people had just entered the promised land and the large walled city stood before them. The instructions God gave Joshua for how to face the walled city were downright strange. Who fights a military battle by only walking around the enemy in silence for a week? Joshua had a choice to trust God or fight the battle in his own military strength. When you read the rest of the story you will see that God did what he promised and the walls fell.
Prayer Lord God When we face walls in our life that seem overwhelming and dangerous, teach us to trust you and walk where you lead. Amen Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. We decided to make one of our road trips an adventure through North and South Dakota. I called it our trip through the wilderness. After traveling through the prairies and badlands of North Dakota I learned to see beauty in these places so very different from my mountains. However I was glad when we headed to the Black Hills of South Dakota. While there were still bare rock spires and pinnacles, there were trees again, beautiful golden aspens and cottonwoods and dark evergreens from whence the Black Hills gets it name.
One of the trails we hiked in Custer State Park was the Cathedral Spires Trails. The name made me think of all the magnificent cathedrals I have seen in my travels both in America and Europe. As we started the trail and looked up around the first corner I understood the name of the trail. The high pinnacles of the rock formations reminded me of all of the great cathedrals I had seen but none of those were as awe-inspiring as this one. Maybe it was because I suddenly remembered that it was a Sunday or that we had traveled through the prairies and badlands for so long, but I trembled and cried at the splendor of these cathedral spires surrounded by golden Aspen trees that only God could make. It was a true moment of worship for me. I was in a holy place made by the great Creator God, the same God who made the wilderness made these Cathedral Spires. I am grateful for the times of splendor and worship I have experienced in both places. Prayer Great Creator God Thank you for all the holy places you have made for us in your world. Open our eyes and hearts to you splendor. Amen You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” When you travel through the Great Plains you will see these enormous windmills. They are fascinating to me. From a distance they seem to turn so slowly but in reality they are turning up to 200 miles per hour. It is just a mystery to me how they can produce power.
Nicodemus was a teacher of the law. He came to learn from Jesus in the evening - not because he was afraid but because that was the time that teachers and students normally spent learning and discussing. He wanted to understand what Jesus was teaching for his message was radically different from anything he had ever been taught. Jesus’s answer to him was to compare his message to the wind. The Spirit is mysterious and powerful. We don’t understand it we experience it. Prayer God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Be a fresh wind in our lives this day. Fill us with power to share your message of renewal and hope. Amen Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. From the “Height of Land” overlook in Rangely, Maine the expansive landscape opens before your eyes. Even on this day when the sky was filled with clouds, the view was still awe inspiring. We need times in our lives when we see and feel God’s greatness and stand in awe of our majestic and mighty God Creator. We need to celebrate God's expansive love for us and sing his praise.
Prayer Glorious God Fill our lives today with awe and wonder. In our hearts and maybe even out loud we sing our doxology: Praise God from all blessings flow Praise Him all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Amen Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. I have come to truly enjoy botanical gardens. They are wonderful works of art cared for many times by volunteers as well as paid staff. The more I visit them and spend time in them the more I see the hard work it takes to plant and maintain a garden. The story of the Bible and God’s love for us begins in a garden. Garden images run throughout the rest of the Bible. When I read these words from James I thought about how amazing it is that we can be like a garden. Just think - God’s word can be planted take root and grow in us. Like any garden it will take work to keep God’s word growing - pulling weeds is hard work. But oh the beauty of the life that is well-lived and cared for in the garden of Christ’s love.
Prayer Lord Jesus, Perfect Gardner Show us where the weeds are in our lives. Help us clear them away and prepare our hearts for your word. Help that word to take root and grow so that we can be spots of beauty in an oft-barren world. Amen Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth. The tools stand in the corner of the cabin waiting and ready to be used. Every generation creates and uses tools important to survival. Every workman must learn how to use a tool some that require years of practice to learn to use well. In his last letter to Timothy, Paul encourages the young pastor to work hard at understanding and teaching the Word of Truth. We have so many ways to study scripture today, but each one requires work and study. Whatever tools you use, I encourage to do the hard work to learn to use the tools and let them reveal God’s word to you.
Prayer Jesus, Great Teacher, Give us a longing and desire to do the hard work of studying the Word of Truth. Through our study bring us closer to you and transform our lives. Amen Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. The mountain streams bring life to everything around them. Along with many others,I love to go there to enjoy their beauty. They refresh my soul. We come to God’s word in the same way. We need to read passages like these words of Paul to remind us who we are and to give us strength to go forward in difficult days. I love these beautiful words about this passage by N. T. Wright from the For Everyone Bible Commentary on Ephesians.
“As we read Ephesians today, to be strengthened and encouraged as Christians for the new tasks that lie ahead, we should remember that all genuine Christian life and action flows out of worship. True worship of the true God cannot help telling and retelling, with joy and amazement, the story of what this God has done in Jesus the Messiah.” Prayer Jesus Messiah We stand amazed at your love for us. May love for you flow through our praise and worship and strengthen us for the tasks you lay before us this day. Amen There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. What I have learned about finding beauty in nature is that sometimes you find it where you least expect it. On our road trip to Glacier National Park we were just going to use the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota as a place to rest from long days of just driving and do a little sightseeing. I pictured them as a place that was barren and desolate, lacking beauty. So there wasn’t much need in spending more than a couple of days there. While we were there, however, I found myself wishing that we could have stayed longer and given ourselves more time to search and find the beauty of the place.
Searching for God is like that; you have to be willing to stay longer and work at it. You have to be open to finding God in unexpected places. If we only seek the familiar, comfortable, and easy-to-get-to places we will miss the beauty God has for us. Before too long we just stop searching and settle for the God we want instead of the God that is. We make idols out of things that God made instead of God. Moses knew that the people he had led through the wilderness would be like that, searching for the comfortable. He had seen them make idols, things to worship rather than trust God. In his farewell address he warned them that there would come a time when seeking the comfortable and familiar would lead to exchanging the worship of God for the worship of idols of their own making. As a result they would miss the beauty and promise that God had for them. So he told them what to do when they found themselves in a place that was barren and desolate. Work at it! Seek God with everything that you are and have and the promise - there you will find him. We have this same promise, when we seek God with everything that we are and have, God promises to find us. Instead of bareness and desolation we will see beauty. We are going back to the Dakotas on our next road trip. I am sure that the beauty that God shows me there will teach me more about who he is and who I am. Prayer Lord God Give us the courage to seek you with all our hearts, to look for you in unexpected places. Show us your beauty in the places where we least expect to find it. Amen Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Lighthouses come in many sizes. Even though this lighthouse isn’t very tall, it was made to effectively provide light to the place where it sits. While most lighthouses have been replaced with new technologies, they still stand as sentries, beacons of light for those who travel upon dangerous waters. We live in dangerous times yet we are called shine as lights in the world. The only way we can be light is when we hold fast to the word of life, the light of the world. Be the light in someone's darkness today.
Prayer Father of Light, Teach us to walk with you, holding fast to the word of life. Make our lives be beacons of light that lead others to you. Amen Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. During the past 3 weeks spent with family and grandchildren, going on a walk was a cherished activity. After a splash in the rain puddles my granddaughter stands still for a moment contemplating her next move. I can almost hear her singing, “be kind and compassionate” from one of her children’s albums as she gets ready to run. My most favorite time to see her run, though, is after her bath and pajamas. She comes running into the den saying, “here comes the loving,” and gives the most wonderful, “squeezy hugs.”
When I told this simple little story to my friend she suggested that maybe that is what we all should be saying to everyone we meet. So as we go through our day as dearly loved children, walk in the way of love and be ready to say, maybe not aloud, “here comes the loving,” Prayer Loving Father Thank you for the love of children. Teach us to be kind and compassionate. Give us the courage to love others that we see this day in tangible ways. Amen Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. We got up in the darkness to head to Clingmans Dome for sunrise. As with all sunrises, you never know what you will see. We got there early and there was some color in the skies but not what I had hoped to see. We stayed until darkness changed to daylight and then headed down the mountain. It was just a short way down when the sun shining through the trees caught my eyes. You see, I have learned that sometimes the images we had hoped to capture are not always the ones we get. If we fixate on the disappointment of not getting what we had hoped and worked for we can miss the beauty that is there. This day that lesson paid off and this was the image that I got.
In these days of pandemic, what we wanted, what we were looking, for was certainly not what we got. So we must ask ourselves, what have we learned? This can be a time for us to ask God to show his ways and be willing to see what he wants to show us even if it is not what we expected. We have the opportunity to leave old paths behind and find in this new day new paths of God’s truth. Prayer Great Teacher We humbly ask you to take these days and teach us new ways to love and serve you. 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 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. This morning I was able to walk at the dam again for the first time in several weeks. It was one of those beautiful spring mornings with clear, blue skies filled with white, fluffy clouds. The leaves on the big tree are mostly out now and the daises encircle it in full bloom. The day was one of hope, a reminder of God’s new creation that he is making in each of us who follow him.
The past months have been difficult for my family as we have watched my mother enter hospice care after a long slow decline in her health over the past several years. With each trip to help take care of her, each hard thing or decision, I had friends who I could count on to pray for me. They have supported me with emails, texts, cards, and even meals. I will forever be grateful for their love and care. My mother’s long journey of illness is over now. Even in our sadness there is hope for we know that she is with Jesus seeing beauty we can’t even imagine. Prayer Lord Jesus Thank you for the hope we have in you and the new creation you have begun. Thank you for friends who encourage and support us during dark days. 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