Cheryl Grey Bostrom's Blog, page 5

Heaven and Nature Sing: An Advent Devotional—Reviewed

I’m DOUBLING DOWN, friends—putting my posts here and everywhere on hold for a few weeks while I wrap up edits on NOVEL #3 . . . and make a few pies.:)

But before I do, let me tell you about the advent devotional I’ll be giving away to a Saturday Letter subscriber this week. (Click HERE to join us—and ENTER to win!)

Heaven and Nature Sing: An Advent Devotional

Rich with observations from the personal lives of nine authors, this book is helping me prepare not only for Christmas, but for intentional, observant living year round. Using each word of the title as a singular emphasis in each of the four weeks preceding Christmas, the authors provide activities, scripture, and reflections that encourage readers to pause and reflect on four themes:

HEAVEN—how heaven is present on earth even now;

AND—how the “and” between heaven and nature is a tendon contracting my “now” into my “not yet” and a ligament holding the two in holy tension;

NATURE—how the creation itself points to our Savior; and

SING—how, because of those aforementioned truths, hope blooms as music we can’t help but sing.

This is a tender, thoughtful, nourishing collection just right for small groups, individuals, and families alike. Whether you’re celebrating Advent for the first or the sixtieth time, this accessible, fresh exploration of the season’s meaning will take you deeper into understanding and joy.

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Hope you win!

I’ll be back with you in no time, but until then, here’s a feast of favorites to ponder:

Down to bones.

“Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt . . . And you forgave me!”

—Psalm 32:5

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Focal Point.

“I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”

—Psalm 32:8

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Where the reception’s good.

“He went out to the field one evening to meditate . . .”

—Genesis 24:63

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When you’re haunted.

“Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord.”

—Psalm 25:7

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Last week.

Blink and everything changes.

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Boat mountain steams through a choppy sea.

(Mt. Baker sunrise. Find the fumaroles’ vapor trail?)

“. . .if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

—Matthew 17:20

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Sometimes you hear growling.

A badger den like this Palouse one plays an ominous role in Leaning on Air—Sugar Birds’ sequel.

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Sprint or stay?

Palouse whitetails.

“So that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.”

—1 Corinthians 12:25

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Late in the day. Our truck was moving as the red-tail stood in a Palouse field. I grabbed my camera as he launched.

Fuzzy capture, but the moment was otherworldly.

“Does a hawk learn from you how to fly when it spreads its wings toward the south?”

—Job 39:26

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“At the hospital, I asked the nurse if I could put in my own stitches. She said, ‘Suture self.'”

(Alice Mills )

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Three-in-One.

Maple, Douglas Fir, and Western Red Cedar, conjoined but separate.

“For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”

—1 John 5:7

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here!

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Order Sugar Birds HERE…

PREORDER the Sugar Birds sequel Leaning on Air HERE!

The Book of Nature, Reviewed

Among the superpowers rightly assigned to my agent Cynthia Ruchti is the ability to connect people. So when she recommended Barbara Mahany as a kindred observer of the natural world, I looked her up.

And I liked her already. Here’s why:

Mahany writes “about stumbling on the sacred amid the cacophony of the modern-day domestic melee and the quietudes of nature. She was a reporter and feature writer at the Chicago Tribune for nearly 30 years, and before that a pediatric oncology nurse at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Her first book, Slowing Time: Seeing the Sacred Outside Your Kitchen Door, has been called ‘a field guide into the depths of your holiest hours.’”

Intrigued, I wrote to her. And I ordered her most recent release: The Book of Nature: The Astonishing Beauty of God’s First Sacred Text, which took me on a promised “deep-dive into an ancient and timeless theology that sees all creation as ‘theophany,’ a lens through which to catch a glimpse of the sacred, be it in the dapplings of sunlight, the percussions of storm, or the susurrations of prairie grasses playing with the wind.”

This describes the book well: “At its core, it’s a book about seeing, and a book about reading. And it weaves threads from all religions, drawing especially from ancient Celtic and Jewish traditions where the natural world is the lens through which the sacred is perceived and illuminated.”

Like Mahany’s earlier work, The Book of Nature is also a field guide, but this time “into the depths of your holiest places.”

Steeped in both Jewish and Roman Catholic tradition and with a mind as keen as her eyesight, Mahany offers readers a feast of awe, in a buffet of language as exquisite as the creation she describes.

I savored every page. If you hunt God’s character and beauty in the created world and love considering and discussing ways it’s transcribed into the written word, I trust you will, too.

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And as always, some favorites from my files for you.

Storm geese.

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

—Psalm 91:1

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Page, turning.

(Before last weekend’s storm.)

“I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.”

—Psalm 143:5

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Necklace?

“Choose my instruction instead of silver;

choose knowledge rather than the finest gold.

I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels;

nothing you want can compare with me.”

—Proverbs 8:10-11

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Growing sunflowers is for the birds.

“Let all that you do be done in love.”

—1 Corinthians 16:14

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

I’ll be at book events in the midwest next week, so look for my next post on November 11.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

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Cover and Title Reveal!

We’ve been waiting, you and I—and at last it’s here: the COVER of my Sugar Birds sequel—and its new title LEANING ON AIR!

For ages, my working title for this book was Chalk Horse. But when Tyndale chose Leaning on Air (a phrase from the novel), well . . .

it sat easy on me,

stuck to my ribs and heart.

I’m pretty sure they captured the essence of this “most unusual” love story that early readers have also called “astonishing” . . . “a multi-layered, cross-generational masterpiece” . . . “a reader’s dream of a book.”

I’m grateful, delighted . . . and so excited for you to read it.

Preorder below, and the story will fly to you on May 7.

Here’s the gist:

LEANING ON AIR

They last spoke as teens . . .
But on a country road twelve years later, a surprise encounter reunites ornithologist Celia Burke with veterinary surgeon Burnaby Hayes, and they plunge into the most unusual romance of her life.

After a decade of marriage, Celia and Burnaby have found a unique and beautiful rhythm. Then tragedy strikes while Celia hunts for the nest of a research hawk near the Snake River. Reeling with grief, she’s certain Burnaby won’t understand her anguish or forgive the choice that initiated it.

She flees to kindness at a remote farm in Washington’s Palouse region, where a wild prairie and an alluring neighbor convince her to begin anew. But when unexplained accidents, cryptic sketches, and a mute little boy make her doubt her decision, only a red-tailed hawk and the endangered lives of those she loves can compel her to examine her past―and reconsider her future.

A soaring tale of wonder, loss, and restoration from Cheryl Grey Bostrom, the award-winning author of Sugar Birds.

Hardcover, ebook and paperback formats are beginning to show up on retail sites for PREORDER!

Seems real now.

PREORDER at TYNDALE

PREORDER at BARNES & NOBLE

PREORDER at AMAZON

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While we wait . . . set your mind loose in these favorites from my files:

Cow talk with Papa.

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Forgotten Fuel.

“Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive.”

—Romans 12:11

(Jake’s pond.)

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Snapped this from the truck window in the Palouse.

Glory. Everywhere.

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Imagining.

(Wiser Lake, Sunday sunset.)

“I saw what looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.”

—Ezekiel 1:27

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Word bubble.

“I tell you,” He answered, “if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out.”

—Luke 19:40

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This is my Father’s world.

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world

Oh, let me never forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong

God is the ruler yet.

—Maltbie Davenport Babcock

Harmony. Unison. Octaves. Perfect fourth.

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Arrival Day

I trust each of you reading this has known a sweet day of arrival:

of a guest,

or health,

or a wedding,

or child.

Of spring,

or forgiveness,

or a pet.

or birthday,

or snowfall.

Of migrators,

or a returning story.

Tuesday it’s Sugar Birds’ turn.

Arriving through Tyndale House Publishers with brand new wings.

Find it at your favorite bookstore on October 17.

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Meanwhile, some favorite pics and musings from other autumns. Enjoy!

Good morning, Gorgeous.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

—2 Corinthians 13:12

Mt Baker in Washington’s North Cascades.

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Even in weedy seasons, gifts.

“The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.”

—Deuteronomy 28:12a

We froze most of them.

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Let sleeping bulls lie.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath …”

—Proverbs 15:1

Easy boy.

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Not claw marks . . .

Stretch marks! On trees, a good thing!

“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

—Colossians 2:7

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Summer’s soft exit.

“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

—Ecclesiastes 7:10

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Glory.

‘Nuff said.

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Asparagus buoys in a fern sea.

Sure sign of fall!

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Blessed.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

—John 1:5

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Thanks for stopping by friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

If a Wild Shore Calls, Go

I love few things more than hunting edges—away from the mainstream. So when summer and friends led us to a LaPush campsite at the mouth of the Olympic Peninsula’s Quileute River and the wild beaches and forest trails in its vicinity, my synapses (and camera) fired nonstop.

I snapped pics with stories in them.

What do YOU see? Smell? Hear?

Who?

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What?

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How did it . . .?

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Lost? Found?

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Confusion . . . or clarity?

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Shifty?. . . or Cleansing?

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Death . . . or rescue?

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Barriers . . . or ramparts?

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Menace . . . or meal?

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Aviators . . . or interlopers?

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Hideout . . . or prison?

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I had to see . . .

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Room for a crowd inside.

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For as long as the tide’s low . . .

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Homecoming . . . or epiphany?

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“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

—Jeremiah 33:3

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Thanks for imagining with me, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

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Sugar Birds: Re-releasing under the Tyndale imprint on October 17!

Preorder (and save 29%) HERE:

Stingers – Ouch.

Such a big summer for stingers. You know, those venomy needles on the south end of too many flying insects. By September, they’re the real deal around here.

I’m not talking about honey bees. I love them. I can’t imagine they have mean bones in their fuzzy little exoskeletons. I even stop the lawnmower when they’re working the clover.

But the yellowjackets? Worst are those in the ground nests we flood or spray. Wicked and aggressive, by this time of year they rove the air in squadrons, sting without provocation. Make us cry when they do.

Paper wasps merely pester by comparison. Dangly-legged, slow-flying, their stings hurt momentarily, then itch like crazy. All season I swatted their open disc nests from the undersides of eaves and outdoor tables and chairs. Even brushed one from the handle of a bike. Hung by a masticated strand, those little factories fall easily, and when they do, I stomp the upended platters of all those developing larvae.

Probably with too much enthusiasm.

I know wasps pollinate, clean up dead things, and prey on other crummy bugs, but after I take yet another jab through jeans or sleeves or on the top of my head, flattening their resupply chain seems oh, so right.

Stodgy and serious, bald-faced hornets live around our place, too. They manufacture gorgeous nests from saliva-gobbed pulp they source from firewood, or my garden gate, or weathered lawn furniture. Hidden from ground level to thirty feet up in fir, fruit, and maple trees and in fence-lines and shrubs, those nests typically stay disguised until late summer and early fall—when they’ve grown to the size of basketballs. Or bigger.

So far this year, we’ve found six.

We could spray them like we do the yellowjackets, I guess. But we’re on acreage. Baldies mind their own business, so we leave them alone.

Usually.

Unless.

Suffice it to say that if you accidentally bump a baldie nest, you’ve declared war.

Ouch. No, it’s worse than that. They can be dangerous.

Sting memory lingered for a grandson, who ended up with a sweatshirt full of hornets earlier this summer. So when his parents spotted a high baldie nest already huge for July, his dad corralled baseballs from the toy closet and storeroom and . . .

Any advice on other chemical free solutions? I’d love to hear.

Any stinger stories? Happy to commiserate.

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Meanwhile, here are a few pics and thoughts from other years.

The weight of all those seeds.

“Anxiety weighs down the heart . . .”

—Proverbs 12:25

“Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you.”

—1 Peter 5:7

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Night-chaser.

“Light exposes the true character of everything . . .”

—Ephesians 5:13

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Sunlight catch and release.

“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”

—2 Corinthians 3:18

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Sometimes skin gets dirty.

“By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

—Genesis 3:19

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Ramparts.

“For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him.”

—Psalm 34:7

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Roll on, Columbia.

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. “

—Isaiah 43:1-2

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Fly and grow, milkweed. Small creatures need you. And our hearts need the small creatures.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds . . .”

—Hebrews 10:24

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

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P.S. My multiple-award-winning novel Sugar Birds relaunches under the Tyndale imprint on October 17. Preorder it HERE at 29% off!

You’ll find discounts from other retailers HERE, too:

Thirst

Dry land, dry hearts—so much thirst hereabouts.

Another August years ago, I wrote a poem about our cracked terrain, our droughty selves. First published here in Watching Nature, Seeing Life, it’s now included with a few of my photos in the 2023 summer edition of God and Nature Magazine, a quarterly online publication “offering essays, stories, poetry and artwork by scientists, scholars, pastors, students, and lay persons” from around the world. In every issue you’ll encounter the intersection of faith and science, the Creator via the created world.

I hope you’ll wander the site at the link above and come away awed. Reading others’ submissions, I sure do. I’m grateful and honored to have my work included there as more food for thought.

For a taste, here’s that poem I mentioned:

Water Cries: A Poem for Parched Seasons by Cheryl Grey Bostrom

You brought the bucket, I see.
And cups.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We are so thirsty here,
this maple and I,
in soil harsh
for us trees:
fissured clay on
a parched August knoll,
where our roots suck air
and shrivel.

Oh, yes.
Pour on us.
Quiet our water cries,
hiccoughs of xylem,
sighs of smoky stomata
that exhale forests,
worlds aflame and
blowing our way.
We’re dry,
so dry.

Dehydrated by longing,
tinder for lightning,
our shrunken cells wait
to gulp You,
Sluice of heaven.
Oh, water us.

​”O God . . .earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” 
—Psalm 63:1

​”If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me . . . streams of living water will flow from within him.” 
—John 7:37-38 

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And as always, some musings, verses, and favorite PNW pics from my files for you. Enjoy!

Toupee blues.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

—Romans 12:2

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Cud to chew on.

“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. . . . Teach them to your children . . .so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land.”

—Deuteronomy 11: 18-21

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If you ever feel old.

Consider Harris Creek Sitka Spruce, Vancouver Island, B.C.

“With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”

—2 Peter 3:8

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Port Renfrew locals call the island Marge (as in Marge Simpson:).

A better naming: “I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name . . .”

—Revelation 2:17

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When your wings need drying.

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

—Mark 6:31

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When you are too young to fly, but do it anyway.

“Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.”

—1 Timothy 4:12

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Eat it or burn it?

Oven-roasted or oven roaster?

Food or fuel?

Turkey or timber?

What do you see?

Blake and I were running firewood rounds through the log splitter when the wood reminded me of turkey.

Which reminded me of Thanksgiving dinner.

Which reminded me to give thanks.

So I did, right then and there.

“Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you . . .”

—1 Thessalonians 5:18

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I hear you, ocean. On my way.

“There is the sea, vast and spacious,

teeming with creatures beyond number—

living things both large and small.”

—Psalm 104:25

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Stitches. (Tiny tracks embroider the sand at Pacific Beach, WA.)

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

—Colossians 1:17

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When you have to eat rocks.

“We know that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.”

—Romans 5:3-4

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My award-winning novel Sugar Birds re-releases through Tyndale House in October, and a wonderful group’s assembled to help get word out. Want to join us? Easy peasy to participate. Only one requirement: that you have or will read Sugar Birds—and can happily recommend it in whatever way works for you. Afterwards, we’ll have a book giveaway party! RSVP with your YES HERE.

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. I’ll be away for a few weeks, but I’ll have more for you here and in my Saturday Letters when I return. You can subscribe to those letters (which arrive with this blog attached) HERE!

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Before They Get Here

This evening they’ll begin arriving—family we love. Readying, we’ve pulled bikes and scooters from the barn, a Slip ‘N Slide and tent from the storeroom. We’ll sleuth on a scavenger hunt, sing a loud Happy Birthday off-key. We’ll picnic, pick berries, lie in the hammock and read. Soon a house-sitter will come, and we’ll drive south to the beach for campfires and hikes with our larger clan.

And—as best we can—we’ll answer stockpiled longings for time together.

I spend the majority of my days in two worlds—one real, one imagined as I write. Though I delight in them both, beginning tomorrow, I’ll leave the latter behind for a few weeks to focus entirely on these souls, these gifts to my heart.

When I return at the end of August, six weeks will remain before the new edition of my novel Sugar Birds launches. A wonderful team is assembling to welcome the book. If you read and liked Sugar Birds or if you hope to, YOU’RE INVITED to join us on that team and for the GIVEAWAY PARTY after the book launches! Drop me a note HERE with a YES for the Sugar Birds Team, and I’ll send you the easy peasy skinny on what’s involved.

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Now, these musings, nourishing verses, and a few pics from my collection. Enjoy!

Calendar.

Fireweed blossoms blaze up their summer stem all the way to September’s “smoke.” This shot reads late July.
.
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
—Genesis 8:22

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.

Soon: Blooms of feasting birds

“Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store up in barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable than they?”

—Matthew 6:26

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Zinnia scrolls.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made . . .”

—Romans 1:20

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Introvert.

“Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

—John 16:32

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Asterisk.

Punctuation everywhere. (Can you tell I’m editing?)

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

—Proverbs 3:5-6

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These are a few of my favorite things . . .

Who’s the most unusual guest at your feeder?

“Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;

they sing among the branches.”

—Psalm 104:12

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

If you Loved Sugar Birds—Or Hope To

Two years ago this week, my debut novel Sugar Birds first entered the world via an indie publisher. To my great joy, the book captured imaginations, won more than a dozen industry awards and traveled abroad to become an international bestseller.

Last year, my wonderful agent Cynthia Ruchti found a new home for the book at Tyndale House, whose teams quickly went to work prepping Sugar Birds‘ new edition. Indie copies of the paper and ebook formats were pulled from the market.

This coming October, the book will re-enter stores under the Tyndale imprint—with a teaser from its forthcoming sequel in the book’s back matter.

Kinda like having your daughter and her husband return from a year-long honeymoon . . . pregnant.

Want to join me in welcoming the new Sugar Birds? If you read and liked Sugar Birds or if you hope to, YOU’RE INVITED, and I’d so love to have you join me!

I explain more in my Saturday Letter this week. If you already subscribe, that letter reached your inbox at 7:00 am this morning—July 29.

If you’re not yet getting Saturday Letters, drop me a note HERE with the words SUGAR BIRDS PARTY somewhere in the header or body. When you reply, I’ll do three things:

I’ll throw your name in the party hat for lots of GIVEAWAYS—of Sugar Birds and other surprise books.I’ll send you more information about possible ways you can welcome Sugar Birds‘ new edition, andI’ll sign you up for ongoing info and more via my Saturday Letters. (Feel free to unsubscribe anytime.)

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Meanwhile, a few of my favorite pics and musings for you.

Ground-Nesters.

Plenty of rufous-sided towhees have nested on our land over the years, but this spotted towhee was a new species for me. When she scratched for seeds in the flowerbed outside my study window, I pointed her out to Blake.

“Come with me,” he said. He led me to the south edge of our woods and showed me this nest.

“When I came through with the dogs, I saw her fly off. Four eggs.”

We ran the dogs on a northerly route for the next few weeks. Grazed our cows elsewhere.

But still. We can’t guard every ground-nester. Can’t keep all those hooves and teeth and talons and rain away from those delicate homes, those fragile babies growing right out there under the open sky. How does any brood survive?

Must be more to it.

“You are my hiding place;

you will protect me from trouble

and surround me with songs of deliverance.”

—Psalm 32:7

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Electrification.

“For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.”

—2 Corinthians 4:6

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Fine as frog fir.

“The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

—Isaiah 6:3

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Whisper.

Driving home after the rain a week ago, then this.

“He stilled the storm to a whisper . . .”

—Psalm 107:29

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Afterward. Still standing.

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

—Ephesians 6:13

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Thanks for dropping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

Bite-Sized Devotions

It’s a tall, deep, wide, magnificent summer.

It’s a verdant, fecund, teeming summer.

It’s a tank top summer, with toasty days we far Pacific Northwesties gulp and slather—

ever grateful, so grateful for its gifts.

Below a few pics from my summertime collection, each with a verse to ponder and stow.

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For more thoughts about writing and life, regular book giveaways, and first-to-know updates on my novels-in-progress, subscribe to my Saturday Letters HERE. Unless I’m traveling or hunkered down with my current manuscript, I send those letters out every week or two with this photo blog attached.

I’ll soon begin gathering the LAUNCH TEAM for October’S RE-launch of my novel Sugar Birds. Interested? Check your Saturday Letter next week for details. If you don’t yet subscribe, you can add your name HERE.

I’d love to have you join me!

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Four years ago: Randy’s dairy, three miles southeast of us. He called these girls to the barn, and they came. Knew them by name.

Cows, sheep, us.

Ever notice how there’s always someone, something we follow?

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” —John 10:27

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Equilateral. Acute. Obtuse. Oblique.

So many angles.

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching . . .”

—Ephesians 4:14

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Opining.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD . . .”

—Isaiah 1:18a

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Aspirations.

(Just be yourself, clover.)

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” —Proverbs 19:21

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Spider bivouac. Waterproof, even.

(You’re looking at a spider’s sheet web after the rain. Keeps that eight-legged boy dry as a camper’s tarp would.)

“For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.”

—Psalm 27:5

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

P. S. An international bestseller, my award-winning novel Sugar Birds has been acquired by Tyndale House. Now at the printer, the book re-releases in October.

Included in this new edition are the opening pages of its SEQUEL, arriving in May 2024.

Preorder Sugar Birds HERE.