Treasures of the Meadow and Forest

During our day and a half in the mountains, Danny was excited to find a blue columbine--Colorado's state flower.

 

One man's trash--another man's (or little boy's) treasure!

Timmy, Danny and Hannah love to find old bullets along the road. They found hundreds here, and collected them to turn in at the scrap metal--but first to play with like hidden treasure!

 I preferred to lift my eyes to the sunshine meadow--warm with flowers hiding in the grass.

 Jonathan and I explored hand in hand--

or should I say, camera in hand!

 Jonathan even kept finding flowers for me to photograph, or snapped shots himself. 

These were shooting stars.

 And of course asters growing where nothing ought to grow--

just like God brings beauty from ashes,

and rays of sun-colored centers reflecting the sun overhead.

 And lunch consisted of potato chips--sliced and fried in turns by each child except the littlest and "biggest."

Mom did those.

 A marmot that chattered and screamed and ran at our vehicle and then fled back to his rock and scuttled under backwards, then out again, chattering at us like he was sure we were going to toss him some crumbs.

 And then we found this sign. 

I should say, Jonathan found it. 

He noticed the scribbles almost too small and light to see--and looked at me!

 "FALLING [in love] ROCK[s]"!

So we had Sam take this snap--

and a picture is worth a thousand words!

What each other's arms mean to us, reminds us that always 

"underneath are the everlasting arms."

 And how the warning of "FALLING ROCK"--the message of judgment and law and doom--

is transformed into the message: "For God so loved...:"

"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world through Him might be saved."

Hearts transformed by His love need fear no falling rock of judgment.

"For those who fall on that stone shall be broken,

but on whomever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."

So let us fall, O Christ, upon You the Rock, and be broken.

Only let not Your judgment fall upon us and grind us to powder!

Another treasure along the forest trail--a bit of sky upon the ground.

 And more Colorado flowers, almost as tall as Danny and Hannah.

 And then the wild strawberries--so worth the search!

 Tiny forest sweetness--hunkering low.

Nothing so sweet in the tops of the forest trees--

 only low to the ground.

"He that is down need fear no fall; 

He that is low no pride."

wrote John Bunyan in a poem we decided today to memorize.

Commercial strawberries can never match the tender forest sweetness of these tiny berries of July mountains.

And so we search and find the tiny tidbits and nibble like bees attracted to nectar.

 Like insects covering these white blossoms not because they are grand,

or pompous, 

or all that colorful or great.

But because they are sweet.

 And then there are these blue-purple blossoms, reflecting the reflection of the sky--

sky-blue treasures of the woodland dell.