Grace Unearthed

still beautiful

Aliki Flodine — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:24:07 +0000

A lone seagull… doing what he does best. Being himself. He looks perfect in the sun kissed morning light. A beautiful asset to the landscape. But I breifly remember seagulls at the Devonport Lighthouse in Tasmania. They fought passionately over tossed out fish and chips. Their ‘bad behaviour’ was laughable, but I don’t think anything less of them. When I look at this picture… I choose not to dwell the worse I’ve seen in a seagull…. I simply see it for the asset it is to the seascape. Still beautiful. And so are you. That’s grace unearthed.

orange people

Aliki Flodine — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:43:21 +0000

The humble Nasturtium grows like wild fire in the right place. It’s a rowdy flower, that makes no apology for busting out in gaudy colours that remind me of mum’s wallpaper pickings in the 70′s. This picture depicts their nature… a beautiful rambler.

Some people are like the Nasturtium. Rowdy, colourful, rambling and real. They can be mistaken as uncouth and weedy, when in reality they dress life more profoundly that a neat bed of thorny roses. I love people who are like the Nasturtium. They make the world around them unique and ‘orange’.

true love

Aliki Flodine — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 06:51:40 +0000

My little boy was very affectionate as he held my face and said “This is the order I love people. First you, then daddy, then my sister” I smiled, and he continued “But I love God before you mummy”. I must have looked surprised because he added this reassurance, “But don’t worry mummy, cause God loves you more than I love you.”

the long paddock

Aliki Flodine — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:55:35 +0000

The long paddock is an aussie term for any route that takes livestock from one paddock to another…. but I mostly think of it as the grassy sides of the road. That’s a ‘long’ paddock. Sometimes drovers put up road blocks, so they can move the cattle safely from one side to the other particularly when moving them to water. One thing to know about thirsty cattle, they move with force. I was yarning with a publican once, about the long paddock and he told me this story.

One night a bloke came into the bar with an amazed look on his face, said he’d seen the the wildest thing. The traffic was stopped down the road for the cattle to move to water. But in the long line up of cars, one little city slicker couldn’t wait. They pulled out and attempted to drive through the stream of cattle, and like I said earlier, thirsty bovine move with force. The little car got stuck in the middle and started to shake as the beasts brushed past, then it started to move sideways, then it started to rock, then it got flipped on it’s side, turned on it’s roof (all while it was moving in the flow of ‘traffic’), back onto it’s side and back onto it’s wheels. The audience could hardly believe their eyes.

Don’t stand between thirsty cattle and their water. Obviously a compact car was not going to obscure their goal. I love this picture. It’s one of power and passion. I’d actually like to live with the drive of a thirsty crusty cow in the long paddock… determined to bowl over any obstacle standing in the way of what’s good and life giving.

the beauty of thanksgiving

Aliki Flodine — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 11:09:49 +0000

One of my favourite places to recoup is an outback station near Blackall Qld. Long stretches of Mitchell grass, clear sky and sometimes purple wild flowers are like breathe to my soul. With my back to the sun and thoughts to the breeze, I’d often ride on the four wheeler to the ‘junk yard’ or sheep shearing shed. In late afternoon light, everything looks beautiful.

Yet hidden in the landscape is an ugly reality – death. Old dry bones are commonly found resting in paddocks like this sun bleached skull I found. The family who work this land have seen many seasons of drought and loss, yet their hearts are not like dry bones. I love spending time with them because in all things they exude hope and thanksgiving. Year after year, the junk yard still receives broken wares, the sheep pit accommodates rotting carcasses and wild dogs still kill the lambs – but in the heart of this family there’s always GRACE. It’s depicted in their thanksgiving and love for not only friends and family, but strangers.

There’s an outback property where I find rest. It’s rugged beauty takes me captive… but not as much as the people who tend it. True beauty is found in a hopeful and thankful heart.

stand alone

Aliki Flodine — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:37:55 +0000

Lichfield National Park in the Northern Territory, is a place of rugged beauty. I loved this tree. It stands rebelliously alone between two torrents of water. A seed once settle in precisely the right place. Any further to the left or right and it would have been wasted. It traveled on the wind, yet landed without blowing away. It remained still, long enough to sink into an inhospitable crevice. The roots have somehow found a source of nutrient despite surroundings typically uncommon to a tree. It’s seated in a place of honour, central to the view of many tourists and photographers… yet it’s species is common. Perhaps it deserves that position of attention, simply because it persisted in being itself. I like that. It’s a tree that received grace and used it to stand alone in an unlikely place.

beauty not lost on me

Aliki Flodine — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:53:45 +0000

Empty car shells look like they have nothing to offer the world, and from the perspective of their original use, they don’t. But what draws me to these metalic wastelands are the beautiful compound curves, the charm of their era and the sadness of their abandonment. The empty shell represents a spent season, a journey that started with adoration and purpose…. but fell behind the walls of life.

I’ve meet people who’ve fallen behind the walls of life, believing for a time that home was a neglected paddock to waste away, under the elements. Yet in them and (at times myself) I see beauty even in the sadness of the shell. The shell represents the structure around which all the elements of life found purpose… and a shell can be restored with passion and time. Ive seen this in the lives of people also.

The beauty of that truck was lost on those in the farmhouse…. but even surrounded by cactus it wasn’t lost on me. In the same way… if you are feeling at all like a shell of your former self, lost behind the walls of life… the essense of your value and beauty is not lost on God.

more in love

Aliki Flodine — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:38:51 +0000

I was standing on the platform bursting with anticipation. It was going to be a great night. I bellowed out to the crowd, with a huge smile “Whose ready for church tonight?” One equally passionate voice yelled back, “I’m pumped!”

Wow! This voice was expecting great things, not necessarily from me, but from the God who loved him. When I got to meet this ‘pumped’ man I understood why.

One look at Ted’s face told a long story. He was still on the road to recovery from a lifetime of drug and alcohol addiction. But weathered features and stubble didn’t hide the sparkle in his eyes. Ted’s body and soul were still in places of brokenness but his spirit knew grace…

Ted summed up grace in one of the last things he said to me. First he explained the traps of visiting his mates when they were on the drink or getting high…. that he would end up joining them and getting smashed. They gave him a hard time when he first got into the Jesus thing. But Ted didn’t quit his mates when he tried to quit drugs. Here was Ted’s summary of how it all works – “I keep falling down, but every time I get back up, I fall more and more in love with Jesus.”

Oh yes. That’s Grace. The kindness of God reassuring us of second chances and lifting us up when we fall.

the bloomin’ desert

Aliki Flodine — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:15:07 +0000

“Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days. The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses”

Isaiah 31:5 was the verse spread across the side of my tour truck. What I love most about this verse is the crocus flower. The desert isn’t blooming with just anything… not something easy… not something common… not something ordinary. The barren places are overwhelmed with a flower that bears the worlds most expensive spice by weight – saffron. The red stigmas (pictured) are used in cooking as a colour and seasoning agent. They are delicate and valuable, yet God says I’ll spread them across the plains in reckless abandon.

What looks unworthy is now subject to royal robes… a blanket of spice that is only grown every 7 years on the same plot of earth. It says to me that God’s love is not cheap, easy, common or ordinary. It’s bloomin’ extravagant, unreasonable and unpredictable. Saffron will bloom in wastelands… perhaps not even seen. But the one who planted the seed will know where it is.