Appreciating Creation

My new Bible study finally arrived (woo hoo!!) and I have been camped out in Genesis 1 ever since. I always enjoy studying passages I know so well, because I know no matter how often I read them, I can find new treasures hidden within. Anytime I delve into a new study, I'm always asking God to help me see familiar words with fresh vision. He always does, and this time is no exception.

This time, as I read slowly through each day of Creation, I paused to consider my own encounters with nature that absolutely blew my mind.

(Side note: this is one of the reasons I'd love to take a year and travel around the United States. There are so many wonders I haven't seen with my own eyes that I'd love to witness in person. The Grand Canyon. All the majestic mountains of the west. Endless sand dunes. Deserts. The Redwoods. The Pacific Ocean...and so much more.)

But as I studied, I thought back to 2012 (right before Ryan and I started dating, actually!) when I went on a road trip to the Biltmore. I went to meet Lynnette for her birthday, but I drove there and back alone, and it was my first time ever to wind through the Smoky Mountains and see all those endless acres of trees! 

That trip was so pivotal for me anyway. It was a giant act of bravery for me to take off all by myself, in a rented car, and travel across miles I'd never seen before, trusting my GPS to get me where I needed to go! But bravery aside, I will never ever forget the moment this cornfields-for-life girl saw that grand change of scenery!! It was all brand new for me, and it conjured up such praise and worship in my soul...that God would think to create something as magnificent as this!!

A few years later, in 2017, Ryan and I drove back through these same mountains in December, on our way home from our Friendtastic Fifth Anniversary Trip, and this time the trees were buried beneath the most picturesque snow. That same worship-saturated feeling fell over me again as we wound our way between mountains of snow-covered trees!

My birthday in 2010 was the first time I ever saw the ocean in person. I was struggling so deeply in my soul during that season, and Lynnette invited me to spend my birthday with her (and Mark!) in Virginia Beach. I was terrible company, but I went anyway, and they were so kind to put up with my struggling self. The morning of my birthday, Lynnette drove me to the beach and I got my first ever glimpse of the ocean (yes, at age 32). 

I will never forget that moment either. I stood with my toes buried in the sand and water rushing over my ankles. I could see water at every turn, and the lyrics to this hymn played over and over in my mind:

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

Oh love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure - 

The saints' and angels' song.

I'm a lake girl, for sure, but the magnificence of the ocean is something I hope I always remember.

And of course, you know my adoration for sunsets, and even though these are much more common for me, they remind me of God's creative beauty on display, day after day...everywhere. What a perfect gift it was for me to be married at sunset! The evening was the first day...of our life together.

And even though there is so much more of the country I'd love to explore, I am so grateful for the many beautiful pieces of creation I have been able to see with my own eyes and the worship that has taken place as I behold the wonder and beauty!

I am a grateful girl. I am grateful for what God has made, and grateful for how much of it I've seen in person. I continue to pray for Him to teach me to appreciate all He has done and to never lose the wonder of it all. And I will continue to pray for the chance to see even more of the awe-inspiring beauty He has made!