Author: Fred D

Wandering the woods today, an old Sunday School song quietly rose up from the shed leaves blanketing the forest floor . . . “Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight“ If we’d all count our blessings as Americans, and not the issues that have polarized us, we’d delight in the…

Climbing Craggy Dome’s 5,930 ft. summit to gaze out over the Smokies’ kaleidoscopic fall splendor was worth every bead of perspiration to get there.   The indescribable beauty of the tranquil sea of speckled colors below attested to our indescribable Creator . . . another soul soothing scene brushed across the mountains. A single orange leaf,…

Ever wonder what a totally carefree existence would be like? No relationship, health, financial, societal, national or world peace worries or concerns. Such a utopian Shangri-La is but a hopeful myth in today’s troubled world. Oftimes, circumstances arise which make Scripture’s challenge, “This is the day the Lord hath mad, we will rejoice and be…

Mountain peaks frosted in ‘Termination dust’; ptarmigan and snowshoe hares replacing brown wardrobes with white; Canadian geese ‘V’ formations  above; forest floors carpeted in aspen’s gold below; alpine tundra flecked with brilliant bearberry red . . . all harbingers of The Last Frontier’s all too brief fall surrendering to another all too long winter. Denali National…

Each fall I stand streamside witnessing a phenomenon of endurance, navigation, and sacrifice that speaks of our Maker’s incomprehensible omniscience.  Documented and explained by science, the divine mystery of the ‘omni’ factor remains inexplicable.  After years of nomadic wandering the oceans, fraught with perilous predators, salmon return to the exact site where they began life…

“Be still and know I am God” (Ps.46:10 ) . This blessed reality is mine each time I leave the frenzied, borderline chaos of our ‘refined civilization’ to wander the forests, mountains and seas amidst the calm solitude of His ‘unrefined creation’. It’s there my soul is at peace as He silently reveals ceaseless wonders…

The creative talent of artisans able to chisel blocks of ice into glistening, frozen smooth curves of art ever amazes me.  My ice sculpting skill level remains confined to an ice cube tray. Yet, this world’s most skilled ice sculptors are no match for the Master. The same incomprehensible, omnipotent Creator who numbered, named, and…

A sense of insignificance and smallness envelops me whenever standing at the foot of a towering, snow-capped mountain, or watching a sunset’s glowing hues spread across the heavens . . . the incomprehensible work of the Creator. Then I recall the “…fearfully and wonderfully made…” creation He literally loved to death on a cross some…

  Happy July 4th! . . . a greeting so many of us will exchange today, but how often do we fully grasp and appreciate the freedom July 4th signifies? . . . a freedom paid for with blood . . . a precious freedom our service men and women continue to pay daily for…

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost Pretty much my life’s modus operandi, sometimes, regretfully, leading to deep valleys, but often, undeservedly, raising me to mountain heights. Decades ago I took road less travelled to The Last…