BUT A POOR REFLECTION: Pear Trees

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Pear Trees

Today I visited the Betuwe region, well-known in the Netherlands for the cultivation of fruit trees. These pics are made in Buren, a beautiful enwalled old town. (Funny, there were no leaves on these trees, just delicious pears ... hanging out of my reach!)
More cell phone pics here.

5 comments:

Art said...: Nice photos, Paul. That fruit just out of your reach would be a good metaphor for something. Hmmmm...; 11/20/2007 8:03 pm
David said...: Art is right. Also one could make the move that even when what we believe to be the beauty in the world has fallen and withered, it is the fruit that endures.; 11/21/2007 2:05 pm
Anonymous said...: These are great pics. I'm with Art and David on this one.; 11/21/2007 3:18 pm
John said...: Paul,

Just wanted to extend to you a Thanksgiving greeting (It's our holiday in the US this Thursday). I am glad to add you to my Thanksgiving list.

Interesting pictures that certainly communicate some wonderful truth for us. What really matters in a fruit tree is does it produce fruit. Leaves are nice but it's the fruit that counts. Seems Jesus had something to say about this once...

Blessings!; 11/22/2007 12:53 am
Carol Douglas said...: Paul, lovely photos, as were your cell phone pix. They sure look like what we call "Asian" pears here, which are round and sweeter than the D'Angou or Bartlett pears normally grown around here

We have a beautiful old pear tree in our back yard. I like it in every season, although I never use the pears for anything. They make the wildlife happy.

The more pictures you post of the Netherlands, the more I think it looks like the Lake Ontario plains--low, flat, indirect light, lots of water. I would love to come there to paint some day.; 11/26/2007 12:16 am

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Have you ever wondered why God gives so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and grey; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But he didn’t. He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too. Did he have to make the squirrel’s tail furry? Was he obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings? Why give a flower fragrance? Why give food its taste? Could it be he loves to see that look upon your face?

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I do not condemn theologians wholesale, but it is unfortunately the fashion in Western thinking to doubt and deny everything. I protest this tendency. I never advise anyone to consult theologians, because all too often they have completely lost all sense of spiritual reality. They can explain Greek words and all that, but they spend too much time among their books and not enough time with the Master in prayer. It is not that I oppose all education, but education without life is certainly dangerous. You must stop examining spiritual truths like dry bones! You must break open the bones and take in the life-giving marrow.

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In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 29th)