Garage Art

Barb and I bought a Barska spotting scope this afternoon and drove out Woodbridge Road to test it. Great little scope and it will get lots of use here in bird country. We only saw three sandhill cranes, a few ducks and a few flocks of geese. Starting to warm up here in the delta and the birds are heading north.

Then we meandered into Lodi for an A&W rootbeer - a tall, frosty glass of classic sweetness that burns your throat on the way down. The place will soon be closed for remodeling. The restaurant in Lodi showcases vintage A&W artifacts since the rootbeer dynasty started here in this little whistle stop.

In back of the parking lot, across the alley is an old garage that has hosted its share of graffiti and clean-up paint. I like old wood patterns, especially if there's rusty metal here and there. When I started working this photo (which was taken while I was holding my camera above my head, resting it on a chain link fence), I didn't notice the fairer sex in the picture. Can you see her?

Sometimes, the last thing we expect appears right there where we didn't see it at first. We're blind to the obvious sometimes, too. Especially when it comes to spiritual things: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . . . the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." I Corinthians 1:18 and 2:14.

God opened my mind and heart to receive His truth in the Bible, not my deciding one day to believe. I was spiritually dead (Ephesians 2), a card-carrying atheist, and running away from God. Like Saul on Damascus road (Acts 9), it would take a miraculous application of God calling me personally, convicting me of my sin and stupidity, and freely forgiving my sins through the substitutionary death of His sinless son, Jesus.

I was blind, but now I see.