Early Morning in the Pines

Coffee in the cool mountain air

Photo by S.E. Fairbanks (All rights reserved)

This last month, I drove up the mountains to Cascade, Idaho, where I enjoyed being a part of family camp, or camp meeting, as some old-timers still call it. It was a refreshing time of fellowship, worship, and meeting new friends (and reconnecting with some I hadn’t seen for a long time).

Each morning before 7 a.m., I made the short climb to the backside of Trinity Pines Campground for morning devotional…and coffee, thank goodness. It kept my hands warm in the cool morning air. More importantly, my heart was warmed as we read the prayer of Paul in Philippians 1:9–11 —

And this is what I’m praying: that your love may overflow still more and more, in knowledge and in all astute wisdom. Then you will be able to tell the difference between good and evil, and be sincere and faultless on the day of the Messiah, filled to overflowing with the fruit of right living, fruit that comes through King Jesus to God’s glory and praise.

I came home and spent a few minutes playing with this simple photo of a Trinity Pines mug sitting alone on a bench near the campfire. I like the contrasting black and white with this one, along with the slightly hazy effect to mimic the pre-sunrise morning.

Thank you for reading. My name is Steve. I live in the Treasure Valley of Idaho after twenty…