2 posts from 2006

Little dirt paths have always captured my imagination.  There has always been something attractive about meandering down a path and enjoying the natural beauty of creation around me.  Whether it be field or forest, spring or fall, sunshine or rain, there's something nostalgic about dirt paths edged with grass or strewn with leaves. 

My mother spoke to me of her early years on a farm where she'd walk home from school down paths skirting fields.  She'd also sing songs that romanticized paths that led home, or to a loved one, or heaven.

Paths have come to represent many things: the journey home, the way to riches, the walk of life, the regret of the path not taken.  I always wonder what kind of journey awaits down this path or that path? Where does it go or where does it come from? Does the path serve a practical purpose forming the shortest route between A and B or is it tantalizingly scenic leading one into hours of reverie?

Most paths form by repeated use and its interesting to think that several others, if not many, have chosen to tread the same path, possibly for generations, with enough frequency to mark out the way they went. Did they appreciate the same views?  Did they enjoy it on a warm, sunny day or rush through with wind and rain pushing them to their destination?  What charms and delights did they find, and did I see them, too, or did I miss them?  These are all questions and ideas that force my curiosity to set foot down the route of a newly discovered path and see where it leads to. 

The paths that charm me the most are narrow paths indicative of one or two people walking down them at a time and with nature intact around them. It is a quieter way, maybe lonelier, but richer in its quality and surroundings.  It brings to mind the following verses from Matthew 7:13,14 about the one important path to take:

Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction,
and there are many who enter through it.
For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life,
and there are few who find it.

I am most fortunate to have been led to that path!

So it is a mix of these thoughts and sensations that draws me to capture a path such as the "Winding Path" above and hope it brings an echo of these thoughts to others, too.

I've always been fascinated by lighthouses.  I grew up on the coast and could see one on an island in the harbor.  It was quite close, but always unreachable to me over the expanse of deep harbor water.  Despite that, I felt that it was my view and therefore my lighthouse.  After all, I never saw anybody else out there claiming it. I would daydream about it.  Sometimes it was my home, sometimes my hideaway, sometimes my castle tower.  But it always represented a place of security and the hope of a peaceful life. I can't say that I had a terrible childhood, but I did have some difficult experiences that shaded it.  I felt lost, sometimes forgotten, and lonely in the crowd that was family.  The lighthouse called out to me as a place of serenity and rest as it stood there standing guard on its little piece of earth.  Later I came to relate that with the One True Light shining in the darkness as described in John 1.  There's something about that passage that has always been comforting to me.  That Christ, the True Light came and shone His light in the darkness of our lives that was sin.  The reaction of many then and now is to hide from the light back into the darkness, but that Light is there as the clear path of salvation, the only path to salvation.  Just like a lighthouse marking the way in darkness and storm to the only entry to the safe harbor, to security, to peace, so it is with Christ my savior.  The harbor is heaven, security is in God's promises of His love and eternal life, and peace is that internal peace which only God gives that passes all understanding.

Here is what inspired this image:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.
He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1-14