Our readers reacted most positively to last week’s column on life as a mystery unfolding. In fact, you got me thinking about what a springtime mottled-green hillside can teach us about the celebration of life.
First, here are three of the responses I received to last week’s concluding question about what this mottled-green mystery hints at.
“Good question,” Carol Reid wrote. “Funny when I first typed ‘good,’ it came up as ‘god’ question. Possibly because I was thinking that it is a beautiful example of what our Creator/God has given us: a beautiful world for us to enjoy and be stewards of; ensuring the seasons and beauty to come for others who come after us.”
Annette Stanwick wrote. “I love the photo of the mottled green hillside you shared [see accompanying image]. If we really look closely at nature, we can see millions of different shades of green. Sunshine, shade and the diversity of textures, shapes, grasses, leaves, trees and bushes create an absolutely unending kaleidoscope of magnificent greens. Probably one of the most pastoral, healing colours in God’s unending spectrum of colour. He truly is the most magnificent artist,” she concluded. “And to think, He has created it all for our appreciation and enjoyment!”
May Van De Wark wrote: “I love blossom time in Alberta. Lilacs, Mayday trees, crabapple and apple trees, honeysuckle and more! They speak to me of our lives. They are here for such a short time, and then they are gone with the wind!
“Such is the mystery of our lives in the overall scheme of things. The Bible says our lives are ‘as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.’
“I love the next verse. ‘But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and his righteousness to children’s children; to such as keep his covenant.’
“The mottled green hillside, so beautiful in its own way, reminds me of our lives. For a time, things are bright and brilliant and we go on our merry way, sometimes forgetting to be grateful to God for the blessings we enjoy. Then comes the darker side, which shows in that photo; light and dark. Mottled green. In the dark times, I remember from the twenty-third Psalm, ‘Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me!’ A picture of our lives in the lovely mottled shades of green. ‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he restoreth my soul!’
“Food for thought!” May concluded.
Yes, food for thought! And all these responses came together for me in a way that reminded me of the importance of celebrating the beauty of our mortal days. Thus, how timely it was that this past weekend our respondents’ wise words made me appreciate all the more the celebration of the lives of two of my longtime friends, both 88, each with his own inspiring blend of life-affirming “greens.” To the memories of Garnett Holteen and Jim Cameron, my companions on the way for most of my life, I dedicate this column.
© 2024 Warren Harbeck
