Archives: Outdoors/Nature

Dancing with the Unseen Partner

Does your neighborhood have a lot of trees?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trees cover our part of town. Tall ones, short ones, and in between. I love it. From where I write green fills my view of our backyard.

Birds chatter and chirp. When there’s a breeze, they sing while grasping the swaying limbs where they perch.

It’s those breezes that capture my gaze today.

Well, not the wind itself. Can’t see that, of course.

It’s the leaves. And those branches that wave to each other with grace, like neighbors calling to neighbors over the backyard fence.

My imagination takes over, and I’m almost convinced that the leaves and branches move themselves. But my common sense knows better.

…And I’m back to the breeze. Without that, the trees have no movement. No dance. It’s what brings them to life and makes them graceful.

The dancing trees give visual testimony to the invisible wind.

So it is with our God. Without Him, we stand solitary and motionless. We exist, but there’s no dance.

Yet when we give Him our life, He breathes His Holy Spirit over us and into us. We move. We sway. We reach out to others who’ve joined the dance.

We’re full of grace, and the world sees the evidence of the invisible God.

 

 

 

Madera Canyon

The trail led us up rocky switchbacks and through mountainside meadows. The morning breeze brought a welcome chill. Petite wildflowers, yellow and sometimes purple, decorated the way.

It was hard to tell that wildfire had violated this high desert oasis just over a year ago. Hard, except for a handful of trail-side scenes we stumbled upon. One rested ten feet from the trail, tucked behind a gnarled mesquite tree on top of the hill.

It hid itself in the tall grass. Easy to miss. A circle of wildflowers hugged the patch occupied by a lump of charred wood –  a small victim among the thousands of acres the fires ravaged. It lay there black and dead and quiet. The flowers held vigil with dainty, stubborn dignity. Life was their testimony; beauty rebuked the haphazard destruction. Wordless tribute sprung from the nourishment the wood sacrificed, defying the past to all who cared to pass by and take note.

Let’s talk: When, lately, have you noticed a small miracle? Was it easy to spot or easy to miss?