Stll Looking Up...

We've gotten into a weather pattern lately ( after being under a stationary high pressure system, practically the whole month of June and baking the South) that brings beautiful cloud formations and, finally, good chances of rain. A high is situated now over the Midwest and drying out the breadbasket. High cost of food on the way; just another sign of the times.

Americana Panorama

A mid-summer breeze unfurls the flags and a nearby cornfield seemingly begs the clouds to open up for a refreshing drink at a granary in Hillsboro, Alabama. Upon our return back home and under cover, they mercifully honored the request.

This photo is actually a photomerge of three images I took that day. I wanted the flags to look just right so I panned slowly from left to right, with the same setting:

f/8, ISO 250, shutter speed 1/800 sec., focal length 60.0 mm.

Precious Memories

I took this on my way home after taking "Nature's Detour', below. This is Hillsboro Baptist churches. That's the old one on the left. I remember it having it's own sign out left of the front door and grass all around it. And a few more trees. I wish they could have left it as-is, but not too many things or people are left from my memory.

The old church is where my brother, Harry, and I made our public confession of the Lord Jesus Christ, one Sunday morning. We weren't saved there, but a few nights earlier, after our dad, who was an evangelist, explained the Lord's plan of salvation to us. I was eleven years old and we were in the old hideaway bed that was the couch in the living room. Dad was through the doorway, studying his Bible, in his rocker.

It was in the summer because the thing that set everything in motion was: vacation bible school had been going on at another church just down the road, and my next-door neighbor and classmate, Diane Little, came out to play. She had a different look about her and I asked what it was - she said "I just got saved"! Even though our dad was a preacher, up until that point I had not ever questioned my eternal destiny. Dad had never pushed it down our throats and, in his wisdom, waited for us to ask before explaining it to us. I wanted what Diane had!

Thank you, Lord for Your infinite wisdom, love and mercy on me. Thank you most for your saving grace that you bestowed on me! You knew me before the foundation of the world, but I knew you that night in the old hideaway bed.  Thanks to my dad for explaining it to me - a child who asked, and thanks, Diane, for receiving the Spirit, who by doing so, prompted me to ask.

As I said earlier, not too many things or people are left that made such a positive impression on me from my youth:  the old house I was saved in has long since disappeared. Diane and my dad have gone on to Glory, but I shall meet them again, before too long.

"Some glad morning, when this life is o'er, I'll fly away".

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:" Matthew 7:7