Category: Photography

Six Sentence Story: God Wills That All Be Saved

After listening to the song, Saint Augustine in Hell, Gregory asked John, his father confessor, how anyone could imagine that Saint Augustine might be in hell.

Well, Father John explained, Saint Augustine was a saint and God wills all to be saved, so there’s a very good chance that he’s in heaven. But he did teach that only some, not all, of us were predestined to go to heaven – predestined before we were even born so we could not boast that we had anything to do with it, so – if he’s right – he might be one of those unfortunate ones the Lord never knew.

Unable to lace his doubts into a secure knot of preservation with these vague words, Gregory cried, Please, Father John, I’ve got to know!

You, my son, I trust will be in heaven, Father John assured him, because you love God with your whole heart, because you follow where He leads and because God wills that all be saved just as you do, so when you get there ask for Saint Augustine and rejoice when he greets you. If it turns out that you can’t remember his name, then rejoice nonetheless in the Lord.

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Denise offers the prompt word “lace” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV – 1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9 KJV – 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Romans 10:9-13 KJV – 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Saint Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, Chapter 16: Faith, then, as well in its beginning as in its completion, is God’s gift; and let no one have any doubt whatever, unless he desires to resist the plainest sacred writings, that this gift is given to some, while to some it is not given. But why it is not given to all ought not to disturb the believer, who believes that from one all have gone into a condemnation, which undoubtedly is most righteous; so that even if none were delivered therefrom, there would be no just cause for finding fault with God. Whence it is plain that it is a great grace for many to be delivered, and to acknowledge in those that are not delivered what would be due to themselves; so that he that glories may glory not in his own merits, which he sees to be equalled in those that are condemned, but in the Lord. But why He delivers one rather than another —His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out. Romans 11:33 For it is better in this case for us to hear or to say, O man, who are you that repliest against God? Romans 9:20 than to dare to speak as if we could know what He has chosen to be kept secret. Since, moreover, He could not will anything unrighteous.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Wild Flowers

Dale offers the prompt “wild flowers” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

I went across the street into the park to look for wild flowers, but I couldn’t find any. So I went deep, deep into the woods, that is, I went on a trail I normally wouldn’t take, and found three examples.

Here they are.

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Woodland wild flower
Another wild flower
I am not sure if this is a flower or not, but here it is.

Six Sentence Story: Pretty Pink and Baby Blue

The devils planted Pamela wearing her pretty pink petunias next to Billy with his baby blue blossoms in a flower bed.

That’ll teach um, one of the devils said.

Teach um what? the other asked.

Teach um . . . hmmm, yeah, teach um what? . . . ah! teach um that now they can weep and moan and gnash their teeth at each other for all eternity. The dumbest thing they ever did was to find their way down here.

Just then another truckload of flowering wretches arrived.

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Denise offers the prompt word “bed” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Luke 13:28-30 KJV – 28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.
29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
30 And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.

I don’t think this photo has anything to do with the story, but you are welcome to let your imagination run wild.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: By the Water

Dale offers the prompt “by the water” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Here are some bodies of water. Although there is a small pond across the street where we are now, it doesn’t compare to these.

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Intracoastal Waterway with a tree, clouds and setting sun
Sun with a boat trying to get in the way
From the bridge just after sunset

Ovi Poetry Challenge: Ending

The end’s amazing. Watch. Be still.
The Lord has won. The battle will
exalt Him in the earth until
the books are finally opened.
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Ronovan Hester offers the inspiration “ending” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.

Psalm 46:10 KJV – Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Revelation 20:12 KJV – And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Six Sentence Story: How I Learned to Confuse Chickens With Dinosaurs

Although less than ten years old the boys were old enough to read a children’s weekly their parents purchased for them. One of the stories reported that chickens evolved from dinosaurs (or perhaps it was the other way around).

Regardless, the boys decided they would find a dinosaur and become famous like the guy who wrote that story. One of the boys thought that a slight rise in the normally flat Indiana farm land was enough of a warrant to proclaim that ground as the perfect burial ground for a dinosaur, but their father told them they could not dig there while the corn was growing.

So they shifted their plans and began a dig behind the chicken house going about a foot down before reaching the water table and finding – ! ! ! – BONES! – though admittedly only chicken bones, but bones nonetheless worth showing to their mother. After giving her the bones they went back outside imagining now that they were Flash Gordons saving Dale Ardens from Ming the Merciless and their mother put the bones in the garbage.

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Denise offers the prompt word “warrant” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

This is a true story. I was the boy who wanted to dig up the corn field. My brother liked digging up stuff as well. Only many, many decades later did I realize that this chicken-dinosaur nonsense was indeed nonsense.

If you haven’t yet realized that it’s nonsense, but are still going on snipe hunts or are wondering how reindeer could possibly fly, have a look at Michael Earl Riemer’s Reindeer Don’t Fly: Exploring the Evidence-Lacking Realm of Evolutionary Philosophy.

If you don’t know who Flash, Dale, Ming, Princess Aura and Dr. Zarkov are, you are either missing out or you are very fortunate.

Matthew 18:2-6 KJV – 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Community

Dale offers the prompt “community” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

There is a park across the street from us which serves many housing communities in the area. Some of the trees there are beautiful even when they are not blooming.

The area used to be part of Heritage USA a Christian theme park which fell apart some decades ago. Although we knew nothing about that park when we moved here many of the people we now know were associated with it in some way.

The blossoms on a particular kind of tree in the park symbolize the area for me. I think the tree is a kind of magnolia, but I don’t know. I just walk through the park.

I think this is the blossom of a kind of magnolia tree.
Another view of the blossom.
And this is what happens to it after it finishes blooming.
Another view of what happens after the blooming.

More Rambling Limericks

One of the nice things about limericks is that they’re short. By the time you realize that the one you’re reading was not worth reading, it’s too late.

Below are four more limericks with two interspersed photos.

I am grateful to Esther Chilton for her weekly prompts, Laughing Along With A Limerick.

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There once was a witch and a snitch.
We weren’t sure though which one was the witch.
Perhaps neither. Who knows?
Although either one shows:
got a snitch, want a witch, then just switch.
Prompt Word “snitch”, May 5, 2025

Intracoastal Waterway

There’s a beep in my brain going peep.
It’s annoying. I’d better count sheep.
With that beep in my head
there’s now sheep in my bed.
It’s no wonder I can’t get to sleep.
Prompt Word “beep”, April 28, 2025

There once was a knave in a cave,
in a cave since it rhymes well with knave.
The word ‘knave’ I must use,
not the word I would choose,
but like Dave in the cave I’ll be brave.
Prompt Word “knave”, April 21, 2026

Intracoastal Waterway

How I grouse and I grumble! It’s grim.
As the cat’s getting fatter, I’m slim.
When I’m small, I’d be tall.
Should I rise, then I’d fall.
When it’s bright, the light’s suddenly dim.
Prompt Word “grim”, April 7, 2025