Lessons from a small tree

August 31, 2015 upliftedwings Leave a comment

I have a long (1 hour each way) commute to work, but I am thankful that I can take a bus there. At the park and ride where I leave my car, there is a small bushy pine tree. This tree is special because it is situated exactly in a way that can completely shade a car from the sun all day (which is a blessing during the summer).

I don’t always get to the park and ride early enough to park next to the little tree, but when I do, the shade it provides is blessed relief from the heat!

However, I have been worried about the little pine tree this summer. We have been having a drought and the little tree has been suffering from lack of water. Actually everything around here has been suffering from lack of water, and so many trees and bushes have just withered away.

I have been praying a lot for rain, for the plants, and for the many firefighters who have been trying to put out wildfires this summer. It has just seemed like we would not get any relief at all from this drought.

But we have been getting rain showers the past 3 days and when I went to work today, I parked near that little pine tree. I was really happy to see that the rains have perked it up a little bit and it has green needles again.

I think my faith was not strong enough, certainly not as strong as it needed to be, and certainly not as strong as that tree is. When that little tree received the gift of rain, it embraced the water and drew it in right away. I thought – there is probably a lesson in this for me, so I spent some time in study tonight and found this lesson in Mark 11 about faith and withered trees:

“²⁰ Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹ And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” ²² So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. ²³ “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. ²⁴ “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. ²⁵ “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:20-25 NKJV

Wow, that was kind of like getting hit in the head. Yes, I guess I had too much doubt in my heart and did not believe strongly enough. That is quite a lesson for me from a small tree! I will never look at that little pine tree in the same way again!

Beauty, Faith, Inspiration, Love, Nature

A magical morning with a Mt. Rainier marmot

August 11, 2015 upliftedwings Leave a comment

Last year, my family and I were lucky to get a few days of great weather at Mt. Rainier National Park in the late summer. On our first morning there, I was the first one up and I decided to go for a short walk and take some pictures in the beautiful early morning light. It was a calm, beautiful morning as I walked up the trail. Strains of the Chris Tomlin song, “How Great Is Our God” wove their way through my head as I walked up the trail.

The view of the Paradise Valley opened up below me as I climbed higher and I stopped to take pictures of the Tatoosh mountain range. However, I also had this strong sense that I should look down at my feet. I was puzzled. “At my feet?” I said to myself. I looked down at my feet and saw to my amazement, some beautiful little white wildflowers, no more than 5 inches high, right in front of my boots. I had never seen these types of flowers before. Still amazed, I sat down on the ground to take some close-up photos of these beautiful little flowers with the very long name – “white flowered sickle-top lousewort.”

On the way back down the trail, I ran into more and more hikers who were beginning their hike up the trail. At one point, a young woman walked toward me with a smart phone blaring music over its speaker. It took me a while to recognize the familiar lyrics of another Chris Tomlin song – “Holy is the Lord.” Those familiar words “the Earth is filled with His glory” seemed more than coincidental at that moment!

After passing t MarmotIMG_8833 he woman, I met a hiker who said there were marmots out. In a meadow, I saw a marmot munching on lupines. Further down the trail, I saw another marmot, eating flowers on the trail less than 10 feet away from me. I stopped. The marmot seemed startled to see me but it did not try to hide right away. Our pastors’ sermons had recently focused on St. Francis and animals, so I decided I should talk to the marmot. Somehow this did not seem like a dumb thing to do. I gently said in a friendly voice “Hi Marmot! I don’t want to hurt you. Stay there, I am so happy to be here watching you and I only want to take your photo. Just enjoy your breakfast.” The marmot seemed very satisfied that I wasn’t going to hurt it, and it let me stand there for quite a while as it ate. Even after some passing hikers and a park ranger scared it into a drainage ditch more than once, each time, the marmot came out again and let me stay there after I reassured it that I would not harm it.

’Thank you Marmot,” I said, “for letting me take your picture this morning.” I was amazed that with a quiet and gentle heart/intent, I could share some time with this amazing animal. As I walked downhill to my breakfast, my heart was filled with gratitude to God for the privilege of being totally immersed in a beautiful morning in His creation, and grateful to the marmot for letting us to both share God’s space at that absolutely magical moment in time.

Faith, Growth, Inspiration

Growing in my faith, one step at a time

August 6, 2015 upliftedwings 1 Comment

I can remember a sunny morning when I was five or six years old. I was standing in the driveway in front of my parents’ home. That morning, the pastor of our church had talked about the power of God in our lives. Being a smarty pants kid, I remember closing my eyes and praying, “God, if you are so powerful, turn this house into a castle!” In my mind, I envisioned a Disney-style castle, complete with pink and purple banners flying from its turrets. When I opened my eyes, our house was still there, looking the same as it had before I closed my eyes.

I can laugh about that now, but I remember being sorely disappointed at the time. It wasn’t until many years later when my employer sent me on trips to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, and to Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, that I really began to appreciate the homes I lived in, including the one I share with my family today. In Kigali, outside of the rapidly redeveloping city center, families lived in simple one-room concrete houses with tin roofs and dirt floors. Most people were walking, and often for long distances of several miles in shoes that my pampered American feet would not consider to be at all comfortable. And I thought back to my six year old self and thought, “God knew that I was already living in a castle!”

I had not attended church for many years, for many reasons. But I never lost my faith in God. I went through many dark times in those years, and I believe that while I often felt I was struggling alone, that God never left my side. I will never forget that during one of those times, I happened to attend church and I can still remember Pastor Bob saying, “it is when the night skies are darkest that the stars shine most brightly.”

It is my hope and prayer that this blog will provide messages of faith, hope and love to those who need inspiration, uplifting and nurturing through their struggles.