I started writing this post about a week ago while sitting in the gorgeous Colorado mountains, enjoying my earth crammed with heaven! I was sitting in our little campsite next to a beautiful, bubbling creek, listening to the sound of water rushing over rocks and happy red breasted robins chirping out their songs of joy. The gentle sound of the breeze whispering through the pines and aspens soothed my soul as the morning sun glimmered little specks of glittery light on to the rippling water. My solitude was only briefly interrupted by a hyper black squirrel who flitted into my space to quickly say hello before enthusiastically hopping on to the next site! I saw God! It was a glorious dawning of a day as I sat there and looked all around and opened up my senses to take it all in. The sights, the sounds, the smells of nature all around most definitely are the handiwork of God. The handiwork proof that earth is crammed full of heaven if only we take off our shoes and experience it! We only need to open up our arms to God and accept it all.
You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. ~ Nehemiah 9:6
I saw God today. I saw God in ways I don't often stop to appreciate. He is everywhere if we only stop to see and acknowledge his being, his creation, his handiwork, his fingerprints on every tiny detail of life all around us. He is God and he is good. Blessed assurance that he is in control of my life, our lives, our world.
I truly needed God to speak to me on this trip and remind me of life's simple important things. I was struggling with being on this camping trip; our first trip ever minus one family member. Our oldest daughter, Katie, recently graduated, had to stay behind to uphold the responsibilities of her job. It simply felt strange to leave her and to be enjoying ourselves on a family trip without her. I worried about her being home by herself for four days. I wanted to be in control of everything and make everything work out the way I wanted it, but that isn't the way life works. After all, she is technically an adult now and this is a point in life that we have been working towards. This is the point at which my mom hands have to let go and let God. We have been raising this child up for the last 18 years. It is time for her to fly on her own and this perhaps was one of those tests, not for her, but for me. Those ties that bind child to mother have to be untied .... at least a little for her to grow and probably more importantly for me to grow and let her be who God has created her to be. This was a reality for me on this trip. And in this trip I saw God.
While on this trip we also got word that just over the mountains, 40 miles from our hometown, a horrendous forest fire had broken out. Fellow campers in our campground were notified that their neighborhoods were being evacuated. My heart broke for them. For the many who would flee their homes in the coming days, not knowing if they would have homes to return to. As this has all played out over the past week, many (over 350) families have lost their homes and approximately 17,000 acres of mountain land in and around the Colorado Springs area have burned so far. Two people have lost their life. God is in control. Even in this seeming nightmare, I see God. He is at work in ways that we have yet to identify.
I saw God today. I felt him. I heard him. I saw him. I smelled and tasted his goodness in all that was evident around me. I was at peace with him being in control and assuring me "I've got this one!" Just like he has them all, if I let him!
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. ~ Romans 1:20
My friends sometimes call me a "fun mom". I heard that again this weekend after I shared with them that I was sleeping under the stars with my younger daughter. We didn't have to go to the mountains or go camping to do that, we simply rolled out our sleeping bags on the back deck and slept under the stars and the gorgeously bright moon. We enjoyed God's creation on a mild and fresh summer night. I laugh because I don't see myself as a fun mom. I simply see it that I like to enjoy life. I see God because I like to take off my shoes and enjoy! I like to enjoy nature and being outdoors and doing fun things. With my kids. With my husband. With my family. With my friends. I like to see and enjoy what God has created.
Tomorrow is not promised us! Take off your shoes. Enjoy today. Look for God. Experience him with all of your senses. The writer of Ecclesiastes says, Don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. (12:1) Enjoy life. Experience life. Give credit where it is due! Praise God and worship him for all he has created for you and for me! Earth is crammed with heaven. Go experience it!
