He hasn’t eaten for a while now and he’s hungry. He is lurking around in the rocks, deep down in the water, looking for prey. Suddenly, a flash off to his side catches his notice. A shiner is struggling through the water—a perfect target. One powerful thrust of his tail and the shiner is in his mouth, down his throat . . . Wait a minute. Something is different about this shiner. He feels a sharp pang in his mouth—something is pulling him towards shore. He struggles and wriggl

Photo by Jenny Venturo The sun was just sinking under the hills when we pulled ourselves up the last rock to the top of a small mountain....

Photo by Jenny Venturo In my last devotional, I discussed the meaning of holiness and explained why it is so important to be constantly...

He runs about on talus fields all summer with bundles of small plants in his mouth. He spreads the plants in the sun to dry and brings them down in his hole when it rains. By the end of summer, he has a small haystack on the mountain where he lives. Do you know what he is yet? . . . He is a pika!   Pikas are small, brown mammals that live high on the mountains of Colorado. They are herbivores, which means they eat plants. Pikas grow to 8 ½ inches, but most are about 6 inches.

Artwork by Daniel Venturo Life gets complicated. Life gets confusing. Hopes, dreams, disappointments, failures, quarrels—all these tangle...

Photo by Paul Venturo It certainly wasn’t Colorado. And we were a little sad to be here. We had left behind the glorious snowy mountains,...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Last week, we celebrated the birth of a nation completely separate and independent from her former controlling...

Photo by Paul Venturo The loose rock in this picture is called "talus." Scree is a type of talus consisting of very small pieces of rock....

Photo by Jenny Venturo Jesus, God in the flesh, died in the place of guilty sinners. He was buried but rose again. Turn from your sin and...

In an open sunny meadow in Colorado there was a prairie dog town. All over the grassy field were dotted little mounds of dirt, and on each mound there was a little opening. Each of these openings was the front door to some little prairie dog’s house. Thousands of prairie dogs lived in the town. They all led busy lives of work and play, working together to gather food, clean their burrows, and always to keep an eye on the sky in case there should be a cruel hawk flying overhea

Photo by Jenny Venturo The north face of Humboldt Peak after a heavy snow. Gale-force winds and severe altitude sickness prevented us...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Turn From Your Sin: In the past few weeks , we have analyzed God’s incredible plan of redemption. Now it is time...

While we were fishing a lake in Colorado, we saw a large lake trout. We wanted to catch one, but we didn’t have the right gear to get deep enough. Maybe someday we will catch a lake trout!   The lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush , is native to Canada, Alaska, and the northern parts of North America. The lake trout is the largest species of char, growing to 102 pounds (46 kg.) and 24-36 inches. There are three subspecies of lake trout: the common lake trout, the siscowet lake t

P hoto by Jenny Venturo Jesus, God in the flesh, died in the place of guilty sinners. He was buried but rose again. Turn from your sin...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Everybody knows that shoes wear out quickly. But nobody realizes this fact better than hikers.   Hiking shoes...

When we were hiking high on Mt. Elbert in Colorado, we saw lots of ptarmigans. They were so white we could hardly see them against the snow. They waited until we came very close before thundering off to another place. We think they were White-tailed Ptarmigans!   The White-tailed Ptarmigan is the smallest bird in the grouse family. It lives above tree line in Canada, Alaska, and the Western US. Ptarmigans grow to 12.2 inches and weigh about 16.9 ounces. In summer, ptarmigans

Photo by Jenny Venturo Jesus, God in the flesh, died in the place of guilty sinners. He was buried but rose again. Turn from your sin and...

Photo by Paul Venturo Harsh, cruel wind bit into our skin, and icy, cold snow crunched beneath our feet as we turned and left behind yet...

Whisk is a squirrel. His house is a hollow tree in a quiet pine forest. Like most squirrels, Whisk is usually busy gathering nuts and storing them up for the winter. But even though Whisk is so busy, he still has time for play once in a while. Most of the time, Whisk plays by himself. But one day, he met another squirrel, who was very friendly and just as playful as Whisk. This squirrel’s name was Batter. Whisk and Batter played together for a whole afternoon. They had so muc

Photo by Jenny Venturo People often say that looking forward to something is almost as exciting as the thing itself. Anticipation, in...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Jesus, God in the flesh, died in the place of guilty sinners. He was buried but rose again. Turn from your sin and...

Photo by Jenny Venturo In Westcliffe, Colorado, we saw a few horned lizards. They were slow and easy to catch. We looked at them closely, but we still don’t know what species they were. They could have been Texas Horned Lizards, San Luis Valley Horned Lizards, or some other kind of short horned lizard. We do know that they were in Genus Phrynosomatidae , which means “toad-bodied.”   Horned lizards are also called horned toads. The horns on the lizard’s head are the only true

Artwork by Daniel Venturo Life gets complicated. Life gets confusing. Hopes, dreams, disappointments, failures, quarrels—all these tangle...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Stuck. No power, nowhere to go, nothing to do but play in the snow. We hadn’t been expecting 15 inches of snow to...