When A Landmark Falls

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Lynn

Alberta Chinooks are noted for their ice-melting winds. Our home overlooking the Bow Valley, with a grandiose view of the Rocky Mountains to the west, has been bombarded with Chinook winds since we moved here over thirty years ago. We have experienced blistering cold, and snow storms in the winter, and hail and rain in the summer. I have a love/hate relationship with Chinooks. I love the fact that the warm, west wind gives us a reprieve from the ice and snow of winter. I hate that with the wind and the ensuing rise and fall of the barometer I get a massive headache. I also hate to see the Chinook winds blow shakes off my roof!

We are dealing with an insurance claim to repair damage to our roof after a terrible hail storm last August. Seeing further damage from strong, blustery winds wreak more damage on our property just adds insult to injury. However, last week with 80 km/ hr winds pummelling our house as well as those around us, it is the loss of Cochrane’s “Grandfather Tree” that has impacted me and the entire community!

It is my wanting to pay homage, to share a sense of connection with Cochrane’s history and its western heritage, that draws me to write about this particular iconic landmark. It has stood as a sentinel long before civilization invaded its space. Considered “young”, if compared to the California Redwoods, the Grandfather Tree, named by local school students, is said to be three hundred years old. Imagine what it has “seen” in three centuries of its existence. If it could speak, what stories could it tell? As a writer, I can’t help but feel inspired. I don’t believe, as some do, that things of nature have souls, but I can appreciate God’s beauty in His Creation. There is awe-inspiring, uniqueness about the tree. From its height, and gnarled tree roots snaking above ground; it is a natural wonder to behold.

Over these many, many years, families, school groups, artists, and photographers have visited the landmark to marvel and capture its unusual appearance. Children have scampered up and around its base and climbed its branches. In hindsight, we should have left it alone, but the tree was impossible not to touch. It was too fascinating not to explore and have an encounter with. If one looks closely at its trunk, some even see a wrinkled “face” glaring at those who visit it.

Unfortunately, over the years, the tree has been showing the distinctive signs of its age. Trying to stave off more damage to its fragile root system due to erosion, the Town of Cochrane recently erected a fence around the tree. People could look, but not touch the mighty white spruce.

It stood the test of time for three centuries but sadly, during the night of January 16th, 2025, the Grandfather tree was finally uprooted by powerful Chinook winds.

A “landmark” is defined as “an object or feature of a landscape or town that is easily seen and recognized from a distance, especially one that enables someone to establish their location.” The Grandfather Tree was an iconic landmark in Cochrane. Cochranites are mourning its loss like a “death in the family” with many in the community wanting to memorialize it in some way to preserve its legacy.

I never photographed the tree. I wish I had, but I am thankful many did, because its beauty was unsurpassed. I thank Tim Hall, a local photographer, to allow me the use of his picture.

The Grandfather Tree (Cochrane, AB.) – photo by Tim Hall

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT)

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Endure

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lynn

I was challenged to choose a “Word of the Year”. Apparently this has been a common practice for many over the years, but I never really took much note until this year. A few writing friends and a few Christian celebrities have been vocal in interviews and on social media on words they have chosen for themselves. The word they select will supposedly help them focus on the year ahead. One writer chose “determination” to help her finish a book for publication. Candace Cameron Bure @candacecbure chose “joy” to guide her through any challenging times she might face this year.

I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s Resolutions or “bucket lists”. I don’t want to feel like a failure if I don’t keep the resolutions (which inevitably happens), or if I don’t complete all the bucket list goals before I die.

“Does it mean I’ve failed at life if I don’t do all the things on my bucket list?” I asked my son-in-law sardonically.

“Yes. Yes it does.” He replied with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

When I listened to the interview with Bure, she quoted the verse from James 1:2-4 (NLT) “2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” It actually surprised me after quoting that passage that she said her word for this year was “joy”, because I was completely focused on the word “endurance”.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I could not get the word “endure” out of my mind. More passages in scripture came to mind: James 1:12; Matthew 24:13; Romans 5:3-5; Hebrews 10:36. All with similar calls to endure, to remain steadfast under trial because endurance produces godly character that basks in a personal relationship with Jesus that ultimately leads to salvation.

It’s enduring under “trial” that is disconcerting. What kinds of trials must I endure this year? Can I “endure” without trials? I don’t think of trials as something positive. Trials have negative connotations, however in the biblical sense, all trials we face as Christians will bring about positive results if we see them as “opportunities for great joy”.

When I think about it, enduring through hardships, be they big or small, requires all the fruits of the Spirit working in unison. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control should be evident whenever I face challenges in health, relationships, and a myriad of other life challenges.

So, my word is ENDURE. May I cultivate the fruits of the spirit by spending time with God, in His Word, in prayer, and running with endurance the race set before me this year.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2. (NKJV)

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Heaven’s Delight

Posted on December 23, 2024 by Lynn

My mother had a Danish expression for the feeling that surrounds us on Christmas Eve but for the longest time I couldn’t remember how to spell the word, until my cousin from Denmark sent me the correct spelling: “Hyggeaften”.

I asked my mother once what the word meant but she just said, “English words can’t describe it adequately.”  “Aften” means evening or night, but “Hygge” means: peaceful, calm, serene, homey, silent, glowing, harmonious, joyful, affable, warm, genial, sedate, placid, expectant, delightful, still, tranquil…well, I guess Mom was right…you can’t pinpoint the words to adequately describe this danish word or the feelings “hygge” evokes.

Christmas Eve: “Hyggeaften”…the sweet memories from my childhood comfort me like a soft, warm blanket.  Picture a crackling fire in the fire place.  The soft glow of candlelight, the twinkling of lights on the Christmas tree.  The warmth of a cup of cocoa.  My cat, softly purring, curled up on my lap.  Subdued sounds of Christmas carols playing on our old stereo. My mother humming and knitting beside me. My brother half asleep on the floor mesmerized by the colourfully wrapped gifts piled under the tree. My father smoking his pipe and silently watching the fire dance in the hearth.  The feeling of safety and belonging and love enveloping me in peaceful tranquility.

This is the night before Christmas.

It doesn’t matter where I am in the world, Christmas Eve for me will always be “Hyggeaften”.  It’s an emotion, more than a word.  It is peace on earth, good will to all men and its origin began in Bethlehem when baby Jesus was born. 

It begins with silent night, but ends with jubilant celebration!

People in Bethlehem had no idea what was about to happen on that dark, starry night.  The sound of a baby’s first cry would be no more astonishing to hear than a cow lowing or the mewling of a lamb, but the angels in heaven certainly knew the significance of that baby’s arrival because they immediately appeared in the night sky and sang, to the shock and wonderment of their shepherd audience, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

Imagine the joy from heaven!

This special event had been planned from the beginning of time, and the angels were finally able to proclaim that the Christ Child was born!  They proclaimed Him to be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Immanuel, God with us!

At last, heaven’s darling sent to dwell amongst us.  Joy to the World, the Lord has come!  Let earth receive her King!  Let every heart prepare Him room…let heaven and nature sing!

Heaven’s excitement, our delight!

But on a hill far away, there is a cross silhouetted against the night sky.  The angels know it’s part of God’s plan, but still they sing, not in spite of it but because of it.

Come to Bethlehem and see, Christ Whose birth the angels sing; Come, adore on bended knee, Christ the Lord, the newborn King.  Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

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