Trees and leaves – Page 2 – Skelton Sketches

Watching and Waiting

Posted on April 16, 2018 by lindaskelton

When the things hoped for are ‘not yet’ we wait, and walk, in steady confidence that God makes all things beautiful in His time. Knowing every season does in fact have its beauty.

I have been watching and waiting for the little branch I redeemed from the burn pile to show signs of life…

One day there came a peep of redness at the tips of the buds:

The next, to my surprise, came catkins creeping…

When they had dried up and begun dropping off the branch was nearly relegated to the garbage when lo…

And behold!

Against a wintry backdrop green began emerging!

…unfurling to my delight into dainty green leaves

defying the snowfall outside the window…

So we continue to weather a fickle spring–with sunny warmth and clear sidewalks one day and mini-blizzards the next. And we continue to put in exercise time after work at the Nordic Center rather than on the tandem which waits under a snowy tarp for warmer weather…

And I keep children’s books on hand for the sweetness they exude and the smiles they inspire!

This one sits open on my desk these days:

–LS

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Rom 8:22-25 ESV)

He has arrived!!!

Posted on May 22, 2017 by lindaskelton

The timing was perfect. I’d booked my flight before the announcement came, but just just two days after baby arrived so did my flight!

Then happy surprise–at the ferry dock, for the sailing across to Powell River, the brand-new Salish Orca pulled up for her maiden passenger voyage! I couldn’t have timed that better. And so a once-mundane crossing became a time of exploration and picture-taking to capture all the newness…

But the real bit of eagerness and wonder lay just ahead… my daughter’s first baby–a strapping 8 1/2 + pound boy with a toddler’s head-full of dark hair,
just waiting to be whisked home from the hospital ( ;

And oh how captivating…

What an expressive little tot at just over a week old!

For eight days I got to hang around watching JAXON take in his new world,

and finding great delight myself in the world all a-bloom there…

It was SO good to be back ‘home’–for visits and walks with friends and quiet sits in the sun by the sea…

The crossing back to the airport was a melancholy one as I sat watching the shoreline diminish… where now three daughters and one precious grandbaby reside…

But the Lord worked it out that there would be friends on the other side too who would host me for the afternoon and see me off at day’s end…

And I needn’t even have dreaded my return to the bleak-slow-to-waken-after-winter prairies. For in my absence spring had come here too!

We serve a glorious King who lavishes us all our days with grace upon grace!

–LS

God has made everything beautiful in its time!

Eccl. 3:11 ESV

Leafing through September…

Posted on September 29, 2016April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

I’ve been collecting a leaf a day all month, to capture the essence of September on paper. Though most of the fall color here is shades of gold, there is plenty of variation when you stoop to see closely!

We had ourselves an easy hike in Banff this week, skirting Tunnel Mountain…

It was just the kind of hike that makes me feel so alive!!

So let me pass a glimmer of what I saw on to you ( :

Our destination was this little group of hoodoos…

which seemed rather lack luster to us, having seen Bryce Canyon in Arizona…

But that’s ok—the process of getting there was a treat (mostly).

A burning bush along the way:

I attended a watercolor workshop earlier that day in Banff. This mountain was our subject.
A guest First Nations man told tales while we tried to capture the picture on paper…

He said there’s power in the mountains and some Indians, including himself, aren’t strong enough to stand living here. (He lives on the prairies.) He alluded to a creator that noone really knows much about, except that he’s given us all this and there’s no way we can repay him/her. So they revere the creation and have ceremonies acknowledging their indebtedness. Meanwhile myths and superstitions have filled the void of not-knowing and many are the stories that are told, attributing god-like power to creatures and denying the Creator…

And I thought, how sad—to recognize the grandeur but miss the identity of the Creator ‘for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.’

And my thought is that if there’s perceptible power in these mountains it is just this—they speak of God’s power and majesty! They are a constant reminder of His nearness to His people.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people
from this time forth and forever. Ps.125:2 NKJV

Meanwhile back home the skies and the meadows and the golden splashes of autumn continue to inspire praise!

And it occurs to me that perceiving beauty is all about the way the light shines…

The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.Jn.1:9,10 NLT

But thanks be to God—

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. II Cor.4:6

–LS

I cry to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Ps.142:5