Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
About the Gallery
In 1997, my wife and I retired to the Shenandoah Valley, just to the west of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. We started as novices, but over the ensuing decade we learned to appreciate and enjoy the simple pleasures of hiking these mountains, establishing an extensive flower and vegetable garden on virtually virgin terrain, and to simply revel in the sublime beauty of God's work here in rural Virginia.
As a teenager I had enjoyed using an old box camera to take pictures around my home and had set up a little darkroom in a closet in our apartment to develop and print my photos as a hobby. In late 2003 I received a digital camera for my birthday and started to take photographs of the area. So after a hiatus of some fifty years I began to pursue photography as a hobby again, but with the advantage of digital photography and processing.
Although I was moved by the panoramic views of the mountains and the forests we see around us, I found myself taking a different perspective in my new hobby. Remembering the familiar Bible verse quoted in the Welcome Page, I did indeed drop my eyes and was awestruck by the incredible beauty of the “smaller” wonders that I began to find.
So having found “a pearl of great price” in these works of God I was struck by the notion that I should share their beauty with others. Encouraged by some kind comments and thanks to patient, initial coaching by my clever son, Eric, I started this Web page. It doesn't seem possible that this is the fifth year of the Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery. What a pleasure it has been to hear from so many others around the world who also delight in these wonders!
The Gallery came into existence and continues as a way to share the beauty to be found in "the fields" and to display the truth of what Jesus said, and I pray, as well, to help us all to better appreciate the implications to be drawn from that truth.
I dedicate this endeavor to my darling Becky, who for fifty years has encouraged and supported my stepping out to follow this and the countless other paths I've wanted to pursue. Thanks, Honey!
Finally—To God be the glory!
Harold Hanson
Waynesboro, Virginia
January 2008
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.