Born in the Big Sky Country of Montana and now living in the Buckeye State of Ohio, Richard is the creative mind behind Big Sky Buckeye. Retired after 40 years of teaching, I enjoy writing, photography, traveling, and following a healthy lifestyle.
The gymnasium thunders with cheers as the Bears steal a pass and score to lead by a single point.
The game clock counts down the final seconds. Whistle blows!
One of the Bears’ starters falls with an injury. A little-used sub enters the contest, appearing anxious to enter the big game.
To seal victory, the Bears only need to pass the ball inbounds. Beneath the opponent’s basket, stands a wide-open player—the sub!
He cleanly catches the pass, faces the basket, and shoots.
Score!
Oh my!
Game over!
The eager sub just scored the winning basket for the other team.
While this story is pure fiction, I have witnessed a couple players scoring at the wrong basket during my many years of coaching basketball and serving as an athletic director back in Montana. Even one of my brothers did it during a junior high game. Thankfully, none of these wrong basket scores decided a game.
From the words of American-born missionary and Christian theologian, E. Stanley Jones: “The Gospel is not so much a demand as it is an offer, an offer of new life to man by the grace of God.”
From Matthew 8:23-27: “And when He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep. And they went and woke Him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'”
From above the ground, a trellis provides a fertile place for grapes to grow.
From a ridgetop garden
Nature’s treasure hides out
Offering its harvest
Flora lives all about
Flowers blooming early
Winter now disappears
Colorful bouquets reign
Sweetest fragrances cheer
Warming springtime sunshine
Changes the ground cover
New, tender shoots of grass
Young deer will discover
A young deer finds the tender grass to her liking.
Trellis roof shelters grapes
Ripen in summer’s sun
Fill with juicy flavor
Birds enjoy tasty fun
Apple and black walnut trees
Shading nature’s grand shrine
Fruit dropping to the ground
Squirrels and deer will dine
Former home site lives on
Garden paradise waits
Coming alive each spring
Winking back at its mates
Apples ripen in the warm summer sun.
All of the photographs were taken during a couple of recent morning walk at Chestnut Ridge Metro Park, which is just minutes away from Canal Winchester, Ohio. The hilltop garden remains long after the house (built in the 1930s) was abandoned. I was blessed to spend several minutes photographing a very cooperative deer while I was quietly standing near a tree.
The burdening of our heart to pray for ourselves or for others is a special demonstration of God’s love.
From John 16:13: “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but will speak whatever He hears, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.”