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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: The Short End of the Stick (02/20/14)
Looking towards the west a glorious view of an eastern Colorado sunset pours into my eyes and flows into the recesses of my heart. The pinks, purples, oranges, and blues that softly array the clouds in the sky as if they were draped upon a girl preparing for the day she would marry her first love can hardly be matched by any painting upon this earth. Cobalt mountains standing guard over the plains are fringed with translucent gold from the last sparkling rays of daylight. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork." Psalm 19:1 KJV

Evidence of God's majesty isn't hard to find where I live but sometimes I believe that memories of the past mask the grandeur of the moment. As my eyes lower and draw closer to the plains within walking distance my heart aches at the windswept fields displaying tumbleweeds where once verdant alfalfa was. As a child I had the luxury of waking up during the summer months to the wonderful scent of dew sweetly kissing those many, many small budding branches. And the lively smell of the irrigation water mingling with the earth would beat out most perfumes.

Where wild rose bushes once blossomed and grassy pastures fed herds of lowing cattle now lay little more than some raised clumps of ground scarcely holding to the roots of browned and yellowed stubble overgrazed by the neighbors handful of foraging farm creatures. Oh, my memories are a testimony that the most recent residents here, especially the children to my way of thinking, have encountered the short end of the stick. They don't even have to watch out for the frighteningly ugly alfalfa spider that once may have made his web on it!

Viewing the present through glasses of the past has the propensity to bring about sadness and even despair depending upon the subject matter. So instead I must begin to look at the land around me through renewing glasses of the future. The Bible says that someday there will be a new heaven and earth. It says that the excellence of that age will so outweigh this present one that we won't even recall the symptoms of sin that make "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now (Romans 8:22 KJV)." The pure, crystal-clear river coming out from under God's throne and the tree of life are just the beginning of the wonders that are waiting for those who follow Christ!
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Member Comments
Member
Date
C D Swanson 
02/27/14
Your entry read like a fine piece of poetry. Nicely descriptive and powerful in message. Beautifully said.

God bless~
Toni Babcock 
03/02/14
Lovely descriptive prose. I'm wondering if the writer lives out west where drought has been quite a problem in recent years. Thanks for reminding us that "we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen" in regard to our heavenly inheritance.
elaine vanpoole
03/02/14
Your descriptive writing is similar to an artist painting on a canvas. I love the way you painted "despair" with the bright colors of hope and renewal, filling the paint brush with a view of the life that lies ahead of us. God bless you and hope to see you in Heaven!
Larry Whittington
03/03/14
Good descriptions of both scenes.

Did you notice that one of them hadn't changed. Looking up even farther to heavens: this view does not change either if we are faithful till death.

James 1 says we should count it all joy when we experience trials of all kinds. The trial of the second scene should build patience for heaven.