Monthly Archives: January 2020

God in all things, Photography

Holes

This photo was taken at Sweet Arrow Nature Preserve earlier this month. The holes in this tree are from a woodpecker. As I understand, woodpeckers make holes looking for bugs/larva to eat. Holes this large may serve as a nest. Supposedly, these holes do not significantly affect the tree. However, a tree with many holes may not be healthy because it has/had many bugs.

Sometimes I feel like this tree, with my holes (flaws) completely exposed. It is reassuring to think that the “holes” are where God has removed my “bugs”.

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God in all things, Photography, Scenery, Travel

The Stalks

This is a photo of a banana tree in Panama. Which is really just a plant and not a tree. What looks like a trunk is really a “pseudostem” which grows from a “corm” in the ground. The leaves of banana plants are composed of a stalk and a blade. The pseudostem is made up of tightly packed leaf stalks.

When a banana plant is mature, the corm stops producing new leaves and begins to form a flower spike. The female flowers appear in rows further up the stem from the rows of male flowers and will develop into fruit.

So I wonder – if Jesus was born in Panama, would he have said “I am the corm and you are the stalks?” Doesn’t have quite the same vibe as vine and branches, does it?

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God in all things, Photography, Scenery, Travel

Raindrops

This photo was taken after a morning rain shower in Panama. I like how the rain drops stand out on the flowers. It is a beautiful image that reminds me rain/water is life-sustaining.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55:8-11

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God in all things, Photography, Scenery, Travel

Encircled

This is another photo from Panama. This is actually one tree growing around another tree. I think the outer tree is a Strangler Fig (Ficus aurea). From Wikipedia: Ficus aurea is a fast-growing tree. It germinates in the canopy of a host tree and begins life as an epiphyte before growing roots down to the ground. The roots fuse and encircle the host tree. This usually results in the death of the host tree, since it effectively girdles the tree. 

I’m tempted to use this as a metaphor for our spiritual life. In that God wraps us up and takes over our lives. But only to the degree that we let God take over. And it does not result in our death, but abundant life!

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God in all things, Photography, Scenery, Travel

The Light

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

John 1:1-5

(Photo: New Smyrna Beach)

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