"Where Eagles Soar" UPDATED on Saturday, 7-25-2026

Yes, an American Bald Eagle in flight. Nov., 2016.  Read on for more information.

As most of you are aware by now, I've been participating in the July "Photo-a-day Challenge" this month, which was started by our blogging friend Chrissy T., at One Season to the Next.  It has been a fun way to zero in on special photos, kind of like a scavenger hunt.  Well, today's challenge is for something 'far away'.  I have lots of far away pictures that, with thanks to my handy dandy digital camera with a zoom lens, I can bring things up close.  

Today I decided, since it is  extremely hot outside and we are under a heat advisory, that I don't want to go outside searching for the best far away photo. Therefore, it's a good excuse to go back in time and find something extra special that was worth revisiting.  This post goes back almost 10 years, to November of 2016, when we were in the middle of a very important Presidential election.  Don't worry, this is not going to be a political post, but there are references to that event in the original post, and they tie in very well with the subject of the far away photos you will see.  So once again, I ask for your indulgence as we travel back in time to see something "far away".  It's interesting that this original post was also a part of a weekly photo "challenge" of sorts, our "Friday Foto Friends". We are no longer organized as a weekly meme, but many of us still do this on Fridays.  

Original Post written 11/4/2016:

Today our Friday Foto Friends, via our friend Deb at Breathing in Grace, is celebrating a one year anniversary of this weekly gathering of "photo-genic" friends, sharing our favorite photos of the week with you and the world.  Click on the link above to see what others are sharing today.

I only recently joined this pictorial group...and was so happy to become a part of a lovely new family of friends who share more than just pictures.  We've become friends who share our lives with each other with words of faith and encouragement along with our photos...giving each a glimpse into our personal lives and the world as we see it.  With my love of photography, and my desire to make new friends as well, it was a win-win blessing!!

The other day I wrote about our visit with some new friends on Lake George, Florida...and "Walking in the Light of His Countenance". (Click here for that story).  The views from our friends' pier and yard were amazing, and I was so excited to share them with you.  However, those weren't the only pictures I was able to capture that day.   I hope you will be blessed by these additional views God provided for me to share with you.

When we first stepped out of our vehicle at our friends' lovely lakefront home, I couldn't help but notice a large bird in the tall pine tree just above us. At first, we couldn't tell exactly what it was, and some thought it was perhaps a buzzard.  How surprised we were when I zoomed in on him with my camera and discovered that this was actually a juvenile American Bald Eagle!  He just hasn't developed his white head feathers yet!!! What an amazing sight!  I was excited to see this beautiful young eagle, because I knew that he was just the beginning of even more interesting sights yet to see!!  And also, because I had never had the privilege of getting a picture of a juvenile eagle before...so this was another marvelous gift from God!

Well, after our long walk on the pier out to the fishing dock...(yes, it was a very long walk out over the water with no hand rails...but that's another story!)

our friends started fishing...and actually catching fish:

Hubby and I sat and mostly watched them fishing , because we are not experienced fishermen, and hubby was suffering from some inner ear issues (which almost kept him onshore...but he made it out on the pier in spite of the feeling of being unbalanced).

I did try to fish, but I was too interested in watching all the activity around us and just couldn't concentrate on sitting still with a fishing pole...


So, while they were catching fish, I was hearing the eagles calling each other in the sky...

and then I noticed that the two eagles landed in a large pine tree back on shore:

Can you see them up there?  No?  Well, let me zoom in on the tree with my camera...and here is what I saw...

Oh Wow!!!! Isn't that marvelous??? And so, I just had to stand there on the pier and continue taking their pictures 

Oh, look at this one!  They moved closer to one another, and seem to be having a conversation.  Probably talking about the crazy lady standing way down there on the pier watching them...

Then they moved together on the branch and seemed to enjoy being close together...perhaps this is their mating season?

Isn't that sweet????

And then they took off and soared above the lake, back and forth, calling each other and watching us...probably hoping we would give them some of our fish...

In seeking a scripture verse about eagles for this post, of course there was the most well known and beloved verse from Isaiah 40:31

"But those who wait on the Lord 

shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint."

During these hectic and stressful days preceding the presidential election...those of us praying for our nation need to remember and heed the promises of this wonderfully encouraging message.  If we wait on the Lord...and put our trust in Him...He will renew our strength...give us the wings of eagles to soar above the cares of this old world. 

But I found another, perhaps less known set of verses that I found interesting and maybe even more pertinent to our current situation:

"And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying,

'Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, 

and tell the children of Israel: (and perhaps the children of America?)

'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians,

and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice 

and keep My covenant,

then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people;

for all the earth is Mine."

Exodus 19:3-5

Wow!...What a message to America indeed! Oh, how I pray that our people will truly obey the voice of God...and keep His covenant...and remember that we are a special treasure to God. I wonder if this is why the Bald Eagle is our National Bird?  Something to think about...

One more set of verses I found that spoke to me about how special the eagle must be to God. In the book of Revelation, chapter four, and particularly verses six through eight, we see a vision of the four living creatures who worship our Creator Who is sitting upon the throne.  Verse seven tells us

"The first living creature was like a lion, 

the second living creature like a calf,

the third living creature had a face like a man,

and fourth living creature was like a flying eagle."

Verse eight tells us that these four living creatures do not rest day or night, saying:

"Holy, Holy, Holy,

Lord God Almighty,

Who was and is and is to come!"

The Eagle is actually going to be represented in heaven in such a marvelous way...one of the four living creatures chosen by God to be encircling His throne night and day, calling out His praises and worshiping Him without hesitation or rest.  

Awesome! Now I really feel blessed by this special visit with the eagles! To think, these magnificent creatures are a part of God's eternal home...calling out day and night

"Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty, Who WAS, and IS, and Is to come!"  

I wonder if that is what these eagles were calling to each other as they flew around...and if they were sharing words of encouragement to us to keep looking up to God...don't lose hope...don't grow weary...God is bearing us up on Eagle's Wings...right up to the throne of God!!!

Whoa! How can we be discouraged, when God sends us such powerful messages each day through so many special messengers?  I wonder what God might be using to send you words of comfort and hope today?  Are you listening and watching for His messengers?  They could be soaring right above you right now! Keep your eyes on Him, and He will not fail you.

Do you know this little hymn?

ON EAGLE'S WINGS

by Michael Joncas

1. You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord, who abide in his shadow for life, say to the Lord: "My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!"

REFRAIN: 

And he will raise you up on eagle's wings, 

bear you on the breath of dawn, 

make you to shine like the sun, 

and hold you in the palm of his hand.

2. The snare of the fowler will never capture you, and famine will bring you no fear: under his wings your refuge, his faithfulness your shield. (REFRAIN)

3. For to his angels he's given a command to guard you in all of your ways; upon their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. (REFRAIN)

For previous posts regarding eagles: Click HERE,  And HERE

"Once Upon a Tree"

Happy Sunday!  I hope you are having a beautiful day.

It is rather chilly and cloudy here in "our neck of the woods".  Doesn't feel like a spring day in Florida at all...but maybe more like spring feels a bit further north. However we know it will warm up soon and we will be wishing for these chilly days again when it is in the hot humid days of summer, so I shall not complain!

This morning our choir sang the following song in church:

"Once Upon a Tree"

by 

Pepper Choplin

We were unable to record it due to technical issues, so here is another choir singing this same song. I hope you will click on this and listen along, as it is so beautiful, and is a wonderful song in preparation for the Easter season:

(Woodlands UMC, 2015)

Here are the lyrics:

"Once upon a tree, a good man died,

And though He did no crime, He was crucified. 

If the story ended there, I would have no song to share, 

But my heart will ever sing the story.

 

Once upon a tree, so the story goes, 

And all its mystery surely no one knows. 

Could the Father's will be done through the suffering on His Son? 

And there comes the answer, "Once upon a tree." 

For God so loved the world, He gave His priceless pearl. 

What greater love could there be? 

He died, He rose again, still the story doesn't end, 

For His spirit is living in me.

 

What tale of human love could there ever be told? 

What song could compare with the one I hold? 

Through everything I am and through everything I'll be, 

Let me sing my story: 

"Once upon a tree." 

Once upon a tree."

I hope you enjoyed this as much as we enjoyed singing it. Of course our little choir isn't quite that large, and we don't have an orchestra to accompany us, but we sang it with all our hearts and prayed that the message reached the hearts of those who were listening. 

Here is a link to our online service for today. There is another song at the beginning, "Chariot's Comin'", which we actually sang several weeks ago, but because of the technical difficulties in recording the other song, this one was substituted for the online service today.   The Pastor's message that follows is from James 5:13-20, which is a timely and wonderful message. I hope you will listen in.

Hard to believe next Sunday will be Palm Sunday and the beginning of "Holy Week".  Our little church is looking forward to Easter Sunday in particular, as we will be moving back into our Sanctuary for our service after all these months of meeting in the Fellowship Hall due to social distancing issues.  We will still maintain social distancing as much as possible and wearing of masks, but we have missed being in our beautiful sanctuary and are so looking forward to worshiping the Lord in that special place that has been dedicated to God for a place of worship and praise.

Here is a picture from two years ago when we had our Easter cantata:

Of course last year it was about this time that we had to stop having worship services completely for several months, so we were unable to meet for Easter at all.  Therefore, Easter will definitely be a time of celebration for all of us to be together again to worship our Risen Lord.

I hope that you will be able to attend the church of your choice for Easter this year, but if not, we will have our service online for those who can't come. Our choir will be singing the Easter Cantata

"Our God Reigns". 

I will share it here for you on Easter Sunday.

Well, I guess that's all I have to share today.

Psalm 122

 

I was glad when they said to me,

“Let us go into the house of the Lord.”

2 Our feet have been standing

Within your gates, O Jerusalem!

3 Jerusalem is built

As a city that is compact together,

4 Where the tribes go up,

The tribes of the Lord,

To the Testimony of Israel,

To give thanks to the name of the Lord.

5 For thrones are set there for judgment,

The thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

“May they prosper who love you.

7 Peace be within your walls,

Prosperity within your palaces.”

8 For the sake of my brethren and companions,

I will now say, “Peace be within you.”

9 Because of the house of the Lord our God

I will seek your good.

It's About Time I Wrote Something!

I know, it's been a long time since I wrote anything...and I apologize for not being more attentive to everyone else's posts as well.  All I can say is, if you've ever moved, you will understand...and if you've ever moved at this stage in life...(late 60's early 70's, 50 years of marriage) then you should understand even better.  It's slow moving...literally...our bodies just can't do what they used to do, and the struggle to figure out where to put things, how to move them, what to do with many things, waiting for others much younger and stronger to help...the struggle is real...moving is NOT for old folks or sissies!

All that being said, I guess it's about time I give my dear blogging friends a sneak preview of what's been going on here...this is an exclusive just for my blogging friends.  Most of these pictures have never been seen before on Facebook or elsewhere...they are brand new, hot off the "press" so to speak. So where should I begin? Let's see:

Well, I do spend a lot of time looking at the pond, and that is probably another reason why this settling into the house is taking so long...I'd rather sit outside and look at the beauty surrounding us...the reason we bought this particular house...So here's a lovely look at the lilies on the pond as they opened up their blossoms to the sun...

And this is a lovely female wood duck seen paddling around on the pond early in the mornings and in the evenings...

This is the silhouette of our resident hawk who keeps a "hawk eye" on everything that goes on around here...

Today this Downy Woodpecker was pecking its way around the pines...

They are so small and quick, I was fortunate to get these photos...

These are "phragmites" on the island in the pond.  If you don't know what that is, here is a link to some information: https://www.fws.gov/gomcp/pdfs/phragmitesqa_factsheet.pdf

I think they are pretty waving in the sunshine, but I guess they are a bit invasive and apparently not a desirable thing to have. Oh well...I still think they are pretty.

My view from the "Secret Garden" bench...no I haven't exactly established the "secret garden" yet, but this is the closest thing to it for now, and I love to sit here in the evening looking at the pond.

This evening while I was sitting there I noticed something large fly in across the pond:

It was this giant blue heron...

See how tall he is when he stretches out his neck?  I guess he was looking for his supper...

The following pictures have already been shown on Facebook, but many of you haven't seen them...this rose is a blossom from the Memorial Garden rosebush that I dug up and brought with me when we moved.  I have been nursing it along all summer in its pot of dirt, and this week it rewarded me with this lovely blossom.  For those who may not be familiar, the "memorial garden" was established in memory of our son Matthew, who left this world for his eternal home five years ago.  We built a special Memorial Garden at our old house and planted special plants there in memory of him.  I brought this one with us and also the Rose of Sharon bush that we planted. It is also doing well, but no flowers right now. They usually only bloom in June and July.  I hope to plant these in a new "memorial garden" here at our new home, once I figure out where is the best spot to put it.

The wonderful blessing of this particular blossom is that my birthday is next week, and it always seems that this rose bush has bloomed on or around special days of our lives. I consider it a gift from heaven from our son...and I feel extremely blessed and thankful. God knows exactly what we need...

Switching gears a bit, many have been asking and waiting to see what the inside of our new house looks like.

I should have warned you that this post would be photo overload! But this makes up for the last few weeks that I haven't posted anything! Thank you for hanging in there with me. I don't know when I will be posting again, so might as well enjoy it while we can!

These pictures are of our kitchen cupboards.  I know many will say it's too cluttered. Others wonder why I didn't get rid of all this stuff.  I've been trying...I actually have gotten rid of quite a bit...but, well, what can I say?  I asked my hubby if it was just "too much" and he said "No".  "It's our home and these are things that make it special".  So there...he actually made me feel so much better. But I am still trying to eliminate quite a few things...it's just not as easy as one would think...

Having all glass door upper cabinets does make it look a bit busy, but actually I am enjoying them now that they are filled.

Since I had to leave behind my big white china cabinet where I was able to store and display so many special dishes, these cabinets have helped to provide a place for the special dishes and tea pots, tea cups, etc. (Even a place for the Pink Flamingo cookie jar..that was supposed to be a "joke", but it's still hanging around...it may become a gift to someone else one of these days...)

The Tea and Coffee station

I forgot that my blogging friends haven't seen this new pantry cupboard that my son built for me.
I really needed a place to put canned goods and some large items that wouldn't fit in these smaller cabinets. Plus, I am too old to get down on the floor to look for canned goods anymore. This has been a life saver.

Here's my sweet son and his wonderful wife. They do have a furniture building business in their home, so this was a natural thing to do...(after I presented the idea with a big "please, please please?")

Here it is filled up:

Welcome to the foyer...please be sure to sign the guestbook when you arrive...

And the buffet has to be in the living room/great room. This house does not have a formal dining room, so we are innovating...

Here's the dining room table, trying to look like fall...

Around the corner in my little den...yes, the doll house made it without too many bumps or issues!

 These cabinets are all in my little "den"/office/tea room...it's a bit crowded, but there was no other place to put them...and I can't get rid of "Nanny's Hoosier Cupboard" or the lovely hutch cabinet that my son built for me at our old house...

Remember, "the room with a view"? 

(my view on a sunny day:)

But all this stuff had to go somewhere...so as I twirl around in my rolling office chair, these are the things I see around me..."Nanny's China Cabinet" (remember the one I broke the curved glass in when we moved into our other house?  Thankfully the remaining glass survived this move).

Now, on to my bathroom...yes, "my bathroom"...I've never had my very own bathroom before that I didn't have to share with my hubby...but this house actually has two bathrooms in our master bedroom...one with a shower, sink/vanity and toilet, and the other with a large soaking bathtub, sink/vanity, toilet (remember the three toilet story HERE?) and then an additional bathroom for our guests on the other side of the house.  But here in my bathroom (the one with the tub) I hung the picture of the "Angel of the Woods" that I took back at our old home...I thought she would enjoy living here and watching over these "woods" too....

 Our living room is still a work in progress. We haven't been able to hang too many pictures, etc., yet, as I am still trying to make sure the furniture is where we want it before we start hanging things. But I think we are about ready to get pictures hung...it's just so time consuming and you have to be so careful to find the studs and line things up straight before you poke a hole in the wall.  So I am taking my time with this...

The other side of the living room, looking back toward the foyer and front door.

I probably should have cleaned up a little before taking pictures.  But if you have to wait for me to clean up you will never see any pictures...

So, let's go back outside before we close for the night...Last evening our kids came over and helped us set up the new patio tables and umbrellas.  We got an extremely good deal  at Home Depot on their end of the season patio furniture sale. We were able to purchase two round tables and umbrellas basically for the price of one...and now we are ready to start entertaining on the back deck...

as soon as these pesky "lovebugs" go away.  (You have to live in the south to understand just how nasty these things are...we are definitely ready for them to leave...usually here for the month of September and May...)

And the front deck is decked out for fall and ready to welcome guests...

So here we come to the end of this day and time to say good night...

But like Motel 6, "We'll keep a light on for you"...if you want to come and stay a spell...

(Just let me know in advance...the guest room is one room that is NOT ready...but I am working on it a little at a time...it's just a kind of catch all room right now for things that we don't know what to do with...and there's still a lot of that...but if we know you are coming we will get it ready asap!)

So thankful that the Lord always keeps a light on for us too...His guest room is always ready and He will never turn anyone away empty...

Here are some thoughts from the Psalms as we close for this evening...(actually this is what we read in our morning devotions this morning)

Psalm 111

"Praise the Lord!

I will praise the Lord with my whole heart,

in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.

The works of the Lord  are great,

studied by all who have pleasure in them.

His work is honorable and glorious,

and His righteousness endures forever.

He has made His wonderful works to be remembered;

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

He has given food to those who fear Him;

He will ever be mindful of His covenant.

He has declared to His people the power of His works,

in giving them the heritage of the nations.

The works of His hands are verity and justice;

All His precepts are sure.

They stand fast forever and ever,

and are done in truth and uprightness.

He has sent redemption to His people;

He has commanded His covenant forever;

Holy and awesome is His Name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.

His praise endures forever."

Amen.

Here is a little worship song we have been singing as our "call to worship" at church lately, and I find myself singing it over and over again as I enjoy the beauty of each morning out on the deck overlooking the pond...

All that we have is a gift from God to give back to Him in honor and glory.  Our home is to be a place to honor Him as we open our home and hearts to encourage others.  We are just the caretakers of God's house here on earth.  Our real home is in heaven, where neither dust or moth can corrupt or destroy. (Matthew 6:19-20). 

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of our new home on the pond.  We are loving our new community and church and being so close to our kids...who are such a blessing to us. We are thankful and blessed beyond measure.  Now may we give back to the Lord all that He has invested in us for His glory and kingdom.

Have a blessed and wonderful weekend my friends. I hope to get caught up with you all very soon.