Earth Psalms - July 2011

Umbrella Pines
July 29, 2011 | 0 comments

While in Spain, we saw umbrella pines lining some major thoroughfares and highways.  Roman soldiers preferred patrolling their conquered territories in the shade.  I’m thankful they introduced these lovely trees that offer cooler temperatures in the heat of the day. 

The umbrella trees reminded me how the Lord appeared as a cloud (like a tabernacle) and covered His people as they traveled through the wilderness.  He knew they couldn’t stand the heat.  And I mean that in more ways than one.  Sometimes seeing is believing, and seeing the Lord in the form of a cloud was a constant reminder:  “I am with you.  Follow Me.”  When the cloud rose, they broke camp and followed.  When the cloud settled, they pitched their tents and rested. 

The Lord is our protection against the heat of living in a fallen world.  He is the light when darkness comes.  He is the One who knows the path through the wilderness to the...

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Swifts
July 19, 2011 | 0 comments

While visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, I spotted birds swooping into the lacy patterned moldings of archways and walls.  Bits of straw and mud peeped out.  More swifts dipped and soared, diving into their hidden nests to feed their young. 

It reminded me of a Proverbs verse that speaks of lizards living in palaces.  So do swallows.  They’re plain birds with long wings, and maneuver like fighter pilots for a beak full of mud to build their tidy nests.  In California, there are swallow apartments lining the underbellies of overpasses along Interstate 5.  Others tuck their nests tightly beneath eaves of houses or in historic Jesuit missions. 

Jesus’ words came like a whisper as I watched.  “Look at the birds of the air.  They do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?”

If the Lord knows when a swallow falls...

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Flamingos
July 8, 2011 | 0 comments

During our travels along the coast of Spain, our guide said to watch for flamingos.  I searched the landscape and saw nothing but a flock of white long-legged birds in the distance.  They looked more like the egrets we have around Sonoma County that stand like elegantly slender statues along the roads as they watch for frogs or lizards to come close enough to snatch in their spear like beaks.

Well, those white long-legged birds in the distance were flamingos.  They weren’t at all like the bright pink birds I’ve seen in zoos or one buys (in plastic) to stick on their front lawn.  Why?  Because flamingos are what they eat, and these lovely white flamingos dined on small fish, frogs rather than (pink) shrimp. 

That got me thinking.  We are what we eat, too.

As we “dine” on God’s Word, we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  As we nourish ourselves in the Scriptures, we’re filling ourselves up with His...

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