Daily Picture

Today I saw a simple daisy with its cheerful white petals and bright yellow centre. It symbolises innocence and purity across various cultures and mythologies. The name 'daisy' comes from the Old English "day's eye" because its petals close at night and open to the sun, so they represent a fresh start. All too often we hang on to our past unhealthily, which hampers our progress now. Our past is no...

Today, in my mind's eye, I saw a TV screen being operated by a remote control, reminding me of how many invisible wave lengths there are such as ultra violet wave lengths, infrared wave lengths, microwaves, radio waves, x rays and gamma rays etc. There are also hundreds of flights in the sky and planets even further away which we know exist but can't see with the naked eye. If we can look at a vis...

Today, I saw a jar of thick body-moisturising cream which gets absorbed into the deeper levels of skin. This has made me think that we need to absorb Jesus into all aspects of our life. When we do so, not only do we become increasingly aware of His presence and His leading, but as we trust Him more, He actually can do so much more for us and through us. "I will extol the LORD at all times; his pra...

Today I saw a picture of a dry-looking stick coming out of the ground with a few twigs spreading out to the right, looking old and tired or even dead. However, out of the top was a fresh green leaf. This is reminiscent of the words of 600-700 BC prophet Isaiah 11:1 " A shoot will come up out of the stump of Jesse; from its root a branch shall bear fruit". This is referring to Jesus all those hundr...

Today I saw a picture of our earth with a festive ribbon tied around it, creating the imagery of a gift. Indeed, if we take the time to reflect on the wonders of our planet seemingly suspended in mid air, actually it is the precise positioning of the earth in relation to the sun, always in motion, due to the perfect balance between the speed of its orbit and the sun's gravitational pull etc. There...

Today I saw an abyss, a huge dark hole which went down to nothing. What a despairing place that could be. Jonah was in such a place when he was in the belly of a whale having been thrown overboard. He felt God had hurled him into this dark place and banished him from His sight. But then, Jonah chose to lift his despairing thoughts into thoughts of hope, hope in the very God who he felt had cast hi...

God's Word tells us that nothing stays hidden forever. I can immediately see three contexts for this truth. If we have hidden sins in us (some that we are not even aware that we have , so we can ask Jesus to reveal them to us), choose to admit them to Jesus, who has already taken our punishment on the cross, which then releases us from those sins. It helps to speak them out to a trusted person. "T...

One of William Shakespeare's characters in his play Twelfth Night, who is madly in love, says, "If music be the food of love, play on"! This has caused me to reflect on how many contrasting genres of music we have, such as classical, reggae, Gregorian chant, rapping, gospel, heavy metal etc. God has not only created us to be unique, as mentioned in yesterday's devotional, but diverse. "There is ne...

Today I saw puffed wheat, with each piece looking very similar, as with popcorn. In contrast, though we can have many similarities, God has created all humans to be unique, which can be attested to with our unique fingerprints. Also, look at nature around us. Incredibly, no two snowflakes have ever been identical. Each snowflake's intricate pattern is determined by what happens as it travels throu...

Today I saw a picture of someone kneeling on the ground scrubbing away. This has caused me to reflect on what Jesus has done for us so we don't need to kneel and beg God for forgiveness of our filthy sins. Do we realise that Jesus died on the cross as mankind's punishment and sacrifice? Our action is to receive. We are not ordered to worship Jesus but when we truly understand what He has done for...

Today I saw a picture of a bow such as created when a shoe lace has been tied. We know that pulling either of the loose ends will release the bow and, conversely, pulling either of the loops will tighten the bow. Are we tightening our hold on routine actions and procedures that are no longer relevant or necessary? Let's follow God's directives in our lives even though they may unsettle our predict...

Today I saw a picture of the weave of a basket, bringing to mind Moses being laid in a basket at the age of 3 months by his mother and sent to float down the River Nile to escape certain death or slavery. The Pharaoh of Egypt was oppressing the people of God as they were flourishing and he was fearful that they could overthrow him. So, it is amazing that the Pharaoh's daughter wanted to keep a Heb...

Today I saw a sprouting cauliflower, reminding me of the patterned detail I mentioned over a year ago that Italian mathematician Fibonacci observed consistently and abundantly in nature. There is precision in all that God does and He wants to bless us in the orchestration of events throughout our lives. Ecclesiastes 3:11 declares "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set etern...

Today I saw some overlapping roof tiles which have reminded me of the group of persistent friends, as recounted in the gospels of Luke (5:19) and Mark (2:4) who lowered their paralytic friend down through a roof, to place him in front of Jesus because they couldn't get through the throng of people surrounding Him. Jesus healed the man and said that his sins were forgiven. In earthly terms Jesus di...

Today, when praying for this devotional, I sensed Jesus reminding me that whilst He died on the Cross to take our sins and sicknesses, He did not die to ensure we have lots of money though that does not mean it won't be in His will for us. As a man on earth, many times Jesus warned of the dangers of focussing on money rather than on God, such as: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate...

Today I "saw" level ground having little "blips" causing me to reflect on the fact that though Jesus is our home and security, sometimes we feel unsettled and have little wobbles. I woke up with a wobble related to being unsure of my commitment to a new rental contract with the need to buy furniture in a foreign land whilst, meanwhile, my adult children and grandchildren are elsewhere. Actually, t...

Yesterday's devotional encourages us to look at the Light of God whilst reminding ourselves that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and our sicknesses, rather than us looking away from Him and at our sins and sicknesses instead. As it happened, after recording yesterday, I went into work and started feeling unusually ill. The morning message helped me to remember to look at Jesus and not at my i...

Today I saw the sun shining brightly through some large kitchen windows bathing me in light, reminding me to look in God's direction, rather than looking around at other parts of the home representing, in this analogy, our problems. Often we focus on our sins, our real and perceived sicknesses rather than on Jesus on the cross taking away our sins and sicknesses. If we look at God's light first an...

Today I saw a picture of a contrail, the white cloudlike trail left by a plane as it flies across the sky. This brings to mind the verse that says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us"(Hebrews 12:1). The book of Hebrews lists...

Today I was reminded of an allegory of a fast train ride on a steep mountain. All the passengers were terrified that the train was going to fall off the side of the mountain, except for one little girl who was nonchalantly swinging her feet, with her little red shoes not even reaching the ground. When asked why she was so calm, she looked up and said that her father was the train driver so she kne...

Today I saw a picture, in my mind's eye, of an aeroplane landing on a runway at night with lights strategically placed to give perfect guidance to the pilot of the aircraft. This is a good reminder that as well as God's Word reminding us not to worry about our future, to fix our eyes on Jesus and not others to give us assurance about our future, we can also trust that God is giving us guiding ligh...

Today I saw one corner of a picture frame but the other three corners and the picture remained out of view. This reminds me that we don't know for sure what our future holds. God wants us to trust that our future is in His safe and loving hands. Yesterday we reflected on not fearing for our future and today we can reflect further on God not wanting us to go elsewhere for assurance of what is in ou...

We all need the reminder, from time to time, to not let our hearts be troubled nor to be afraid. In John 14 we read how Jesus emphasised the importance of this instruction at the beginning and the end of one of His discourses. In Matthew 6:34 we further read, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow...". This is easier said than done unless we truly believe, trust in, ask of, declare and thank our m...

I have still been reflecting on the words I used recently on God's spiritual DNA in us, changing us into His image. Taking this further, blood is our life source. We are related to God the Father and His Son Jesus whose blood was shed for us, representing the exchange of our imperfect lives for His perfect life. Whenever we take a sip of wine in a serious manner in remembrance of what Jesus has do...

Today someone sent me a beautiful description of the splendid giant Californian redwood trees (sequioas) which can reach majestic heights of 116m/380 ft and yet have roots of a relatively short depth of about 3.7m, 12 ft at most. How come? Because their roots intertwine and support each other horizontally. I reflect that this can be like us in that we are ultimately and individually responsible fo...