All is Vanity

Fellow Traveler,

As a wildlife photographer, my curiosity and expectation of seeing some unique bird or animal, then being able to capture their image for others to enjoy is always foremost in my mind as I walk the nature trails, visit a beach, or explore places like Yosemite. I’m always on the lookout for some new vista, sunrise, or sunset. At the same time I’m aware that it is an exercise in futility if I’m thinking, “This will be the greatest, best and last photo I’ll ever need to take.” I’ll never be fully satisfied with any one picture and will always be wanting to improve it. Such is the fate of a photographer.

Old King Solomon, in his book of Ecclesiastes echoes this truth – “All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” Ecclesiastes 1:8. Solomon’s book of wisdom is a solemn lament of our condition as fallen creatures. Life is futile. He says, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” and proves that though a person has everything in this life – riches, knowledge, creative genius, the best of job skills, the most pleasure imaginable, and the best health – nothing this world can give fully satisfies. We always want more, and it will all be left behind when we go to the grave.

Thankfully, there is a spiritual dimension of life, one that supersedes the negative “futilities” that we all experience. Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. There is a new life that removes the futility of the old. There is a new perspective on the whole purpose of our existence. There is the realization that, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” II Corinthians 5:17. The heavenly gifts of love, joy, and peace are eternal. They are fully satisfying.

When Jesus met the woman at the well in John chapter 4, he offered her something she couldn’t find in this world, “living water.” He told her, “Whoever drinks of this [well] water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13,14.
 
The answer to the futility of this life can only be found in the Lord Jesus, as He gives us new, eternal life. Let us praise Him today as we draw closer to Him in worship, prayer, and reading His Word. He has set us free from the curse we were born under and fills us with real, true, abundant, and all-fulfilling life.

Old Davy

Resurrection

Fellow Traveler,

The heart of God is revealed in countless ways in Scripture. One of the most endearing is in John chapter 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus was a brother to Mary and Martha of Bethany, which was just a few miles north of Jerusalem. This little family was loved by the Lord, and He visited their home a number of times. The events unfolded dramatically as Jesus is told that Lazarus is sick but waits two days before going to Bethany. The brother of Mary and Martha was in the grave for four days when Jesus arrives. The sisters are grief stricken and wonder why the Lord didn’t arrive sooner, knowing He could have healed their brother. But Jesus’ plan was far more glorious – He would raise this man from the dead. 
[Martha said,] “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” And Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
 
[In a few minutes, Mary came and said,] “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. The the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” [In a few more minutes, Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead to the glory of God.]

The day before yesterday our next door neighbor, Alma, died from cancer. She was diagnosed in November. She and Gabriel have two sons who are in their 20’s. She was in her 40’s. I talked to one of her brothers yesterday. There is peace in the family because there is great hope in God’s promised resurrection. Alma was a believer – one who loved Jesus as her Lord and Savior – one who knew that she would rise again on the last day. One who knew that the moment her spirit left her body, she would see her Savior and rejoice in His presence. We grieve with the family, but know that Alma is at home in heaven.

What a loving God we serve! Give Him glory, praise and thanks this day that even in grief, we can be comforted with the words of Jesus: “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”

Old Davy 

Tule Fog

Fellow Traveler,

Winters here in the Central Valley of California don’t come with the snow, ice and freezing rain that other states experience. We are granted valley fog, or as the locals call it, Tule fog. It can lift after a few hours or last for days. It is wet and cold to work in and a nightmare to drive in. It is blinding, rendering a haziness to everything we see that’s close to us and total blindness to everything at a distance.

Jesus had to deal with people who were blind spiritually. They were in a perpetual fog when it came to who He was and the words He spoke. The Jewish rulers, scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees were the elite of His day – religious leaders who interpreted and determined religious norms. They were self-righteous hypocrites who rejected the person and truths of the Son of God to the point of murdering Him. They were spiritually blind to the simplest answers Jesus gave when they questioned Him about where He came from, who His father was, and where did He get His authority to do what He did and say what He said.

When Jesus confronted them in John 8, He said to them, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father . . . if God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do . . . He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

Willingly blind, the Jewish rulers tried to stone Jesus three times, including just after this confrontation in John 8. They would succeed in their murder when they finally arrest Him and take Him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.

We are all born spiritually blind. Until we cry out to God as did blind Bartimaeus when Jesus gave him his sight, we will continue to grope about in a deathly fog. Let’s give thanks if we were blind, but now see and embrace the truth of the words of Jesus. Let us humbly bow before Him in praise and adoration as the One who gives us light and life.

Old Davy

Absolute Absolutes

Fellow Traveler, 

Our little worlds contain the essence of who we are. Genetics provides what I look like and in large part how I act and react. My early family environment shaped much of who I am. I view myself and the world around me uniquely. My mind has formulated what I think is reality. And yet, my thinking may be all wrong. How do I know what I know? How do I know what I know is true? I look around me and see everyone holding different opinions and viewpoints. Just who is right?

My English classes in high school rocked my simple world when our teacher, Mr. Haggerty, posited the question, “Are there really absolutes in this world?” “How do you know for certain you’re seeing that tree out there in the courtyard?” “How do you really know the difference between right and wrong?” Welcome to the really unreal world, Mr. Skinner. Life took a turn about that time as I unconsciously questioned things around me and discarded moral truth as irrelevant to my sin-loving little space. There was a new feeling of independence and power as I could relegate secular, social, and spiritual norms to the wastebasket.

God’s word says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” That was my story back in the day. I was defining my own values and truths according to my own wishes. I was my own God and rule maker. Who were you to tell me anything I didn’t agree with?

And we all know what happened next: Jesus, the Lord of Glory reached down and plucked me from the depths of depravity and spiritual death. For the first time in my life I believed His word and wanted to follow Him. He showed me what was truly right and wrong, forgave me of my sins, and put a new song in my mouth. The way of death (eternal death in hell) had no power over me after that. I was set free from the shame, power, and consequences of rebellion against a holy Creator. 

There ARE absolutes. They are God-revealed in His word. They are wonderful to behold and enjoy. They will free us from ourselves.

Old Davy

Candy Train

Circa 1956:

Roy Moore and his wife Ida lived at 405 Branch Street in San Luis Obispo. He was an engineer for Southern Pacific. He and Ida were friends of my grandmother Cara Skinner. They must have been close friends because he would throw bags of candy out of the engine cab once in a while. Grandma Skinner would call and let us know what day and time he would be coming by, so my brother Marty and I would go around the north end of the cyclone fence that bordered the east side of Oak Park in Paso Robles and wait for the rumbling in the distance. The anticipation was almost pants wetting.  

Roy would hold the bag out the window and give it a toss. We probably waved thanks, then ran to pick up the loot, being careful not to get too close to the tracks while the train lumbered by. Getting candy was a real treat for us ‘poor boys,’ and I’ll never forget this act of Mr. Moore’s kindness.

I still don’t know if Roy or my grandmother bought the candy. My guess it was my grandmother, since all of our dentist visits were in San Luis Obispo.

New Year Plans

Fellow Traveler,

Another page is turned on our calendars. In fact, we’ve discarded the one we used for 2021 and replaced it with another one that features cats. That seems to be the theme for the past few years. It’s a Barbara thing – choosing the yearly daybook. On it, we can do a bit of planning – adding reminder dates for doctor visits, paydays, vacations, etc. Our poor memories need coaxing for so many things. Remembering when to see your dentist so you can adjust your schedule is one of them. Our lives are lived with schedules, routines, and the unexpected thrown in to season the mix. We are pretty good at planning, which is a reflection of God’s image in us. Just as He is the primal planner – in creation, providence, and all events past, present, and future – so we are given in small measure this power of planning.

Proverbs 27:1 gives us a warning, though. “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” The Apostle James tells us, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” James 4:13-16. 

And even Jesus warns us about the uncertainty of the future in a parable: “The ground of a rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?'” Luke 12:16-20.

Of course, the Bible tells us in other places to plan, and plan wisely. God has given us the ability to do that for a reason. But when we try to orchestrate the details of our lives without consulting and honoring Him, we take on the roll of God Himself. We become the almighty captains of our fate in our own minds. That wisest of kings and men said, “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. 

This should be our great resolution for the coming year – acknowledging, honoring, and getting direction from the One who knows what’s best for us as we pray and read His Word. As that great hymn says, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty – hold me with thy powerful hand.”

May the Lord Jesus lead us in all our ways this day and through all of 2022.

Old Davy