God's creation constantly amazes me and leaves me awestruck by his creativity and the beauty of what he's made. My family just returned from a trip to Richmond, VA and Virginia Beach, and I had plenty of opportunities to be in wonder over how gorgeous nature is.
We left at 6 a.m. on Saturday, meaning I woke up at 5:30, and that's early even for me. Despite the fact that I was awake far earlier than I would have liked, leaving at 6 meant we were out in the country to see the sunrise, and that was worth it. It wasn't a typical sunrise full of pink, purple, yellow, orange, gold, and all those purty colors; it had a unique beauty. The morning was very foggy and cloudy and the sky was a dull grey monotone when a clearly defined crimson disc rose above the tree line. The fog and clouds that shrouded the fields and forests took on a very slight rose tinge. The world was bathed in a pinkish-red mist as the blood-hued circle climbed up into the sky. It was amazing. I just stared at it for easily 40 minutes, thanking God for such a sight.
We were driving through the Appalachian mountains during late morning so there was still some fog up there and driving past the mist filled valleys, and seeing the huge tree-covered mountains instigated some more spontaneous prayer.
Two of the places we visited were the James River in Richmond and the Atlantic Ocean at Virginia Beach. Both were demonstrations of the incredible power of water. The part of the river that we were in was filled with boulders and rock formations formed by water wearing away at granite for thousands of years to form these strange shapes and mounds of rock. It was cool to think how much power it had taken for a river to carve such a landscape. I saw this power at work when Amanda decided she was going to ride down some risky rapids solo in only a life jacket, but thank goodness my dad got to her before she got seriously injured. At the ocean, my siblings and I would stand near the shore where most of the waves ended up cresting and crashing back down and the water had the most force. Several times we were knocked over and dragged under by the strength of the waves (don't worry, it was too shallow and the waves were too small to actually hold us under long enough to drown us or cause serious injury or anything). And God can hold all these waters in his hand. That takes a mighty being. It definitely put into perspective how small humans are and how big God is.
Nature lovers never run out of delight over even the most minuscule things in creation. I also discovered a type of shrub I had never seen before on the trip that I thought was pretty neat, even though my brother poked fun at me for getting excited over a bush.
2 comments:
Sounds like a fantastic trip! God has definitely blessed you with the gift of wonder.
Wow, I'll have to hear more about the trip sometime soon! There was this bush in Thailand that looked like some sort of fern. When you touched it, it would quickly change from green to red and fold itself up--I guess as a defense mechanism. Well, if it was a defense mechanism, it didn't work very well because it made me want to play with it all the more. But I can see how a moving bush could scare animals away.
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