When I stumbled on Romans 2:29 in my current Bible study, I was blown away by the imagery of a circumcised heart. What might that look like? How would a believer's heart look different than a non-believe? I chose the crown of thorns to mark the cuts of the circumcision and revealed what is inside my heart: the body and blood of Christ, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, Christ and the saving power of baptism.

In Scripture, the palm is always the date palm, stately and beautiful. It has extremely deep tap roots—called a root ball—and thus can flourish even in the desert, growing tall and living long. It is perhaps the most useful of all trees, not only producing dates, but also sugar, wine, honey, oil, resin, rope, thread, tannin, and dyestuff. Its seeds are fed to cattle and its leaves are used for roofs, fences, mats, and baskets. Its fruit is said to get sweeter as the tree grows older. May we all flourish like those date palms and produce sweeter and sweeter fruit for the Lord, even in our old age!

One Spring morning in my 15th year, my father and I were getting in the car to go to church early, as we sang in the choir together. He asked me, "Do you notice anything?" I looked around the driveway and said, "No." He said, "Look! The daffodils are starting to sprout!" He talked to me about how important it is to pay attention. When God is doing something new, we might miss it if we're not paying attention.

For the past 6 years, my family has vacationed at Camp Arcadia, in Arcadia, MI, on the shore of Lake Michigan. We continue to return because of the real rest and peace we experience during our week's stay. Pat Maier created a coloring book to commemorate camp and I borrowed her shoreline picture to trace in my bible. The tracing was done at the end of our 2016 summer. I waited until our 2017 visit to color it. I sat outside the Inn, with the waves to my back and the sun on my skin. It was an amazing experience. I paired the picture with Matthew 11:28-30.