A page from my journal

It's 4:00 am and Lord, I know you've woken me up and want me to write this down...
We just got back from the Smokey Mountains and Florida...so many things I saw and experienced there taught me so much about God but lately one image constantly is in my mind~

As we drove through the mountains on the most remote paths, we would see big old trees and awesome boulders; so huge, the were bigger than a car or even a van, the rocks would be scattered up and down the mountain side as if someone had just tossed them where they lie.

Then all of the sudden we would come around a bend, cross over a tiny creek and see the most beautiful valley or creek bed-it seemed as if you could see for hours for miles through this tiny yet very large open space. Each rock carefully placed, each tree in a precise position, each flower open to all of it's potential. And what has really stuck with me is that all this precision was there before any person saw it...It was designed simply to be beautiful~for no one's enjoyment except the Creators.

My grandma used to set the most fantastic table for Sunday dinner. Although she didn't have fancy things and her house was full of boys paid no attention to beauty she always took the time to set a table. And as I grew up she taught me how to take care in folding napkins(even though they were just paper), the correct placement of silver wear, the proper places for glasses; she would design the Sunday table as carefully as she prepared the meal. And as I think back, no one except her and eventually me ever really enjoyed all her work. No one saw it, beheld it, appreciated it~just her, the creator. She did all that work simply because it was beautiful and it made her happy.

As I stood on the shores of the Atlantic ocean I was impressed by it's enormous power, it's life, it's magnitude! As I drove through the Smokey mountains I was amazed by their height and mass and enormity. But as I looked at the creeks and caverns "set" with beauty, I saw God's femininity~His love for beauty. I am in awe of the sacredness of it.

For I only have two eyes to see, and I have only visited one small place in the mountains...there are countless other places in those mountains and in this world that He has "set" with beauty and precision simply for His enjoyment. I love that!

All things bright and beautiful all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful the Lord God made them all!

Thank you Father...for instilling in my female self the love of beauty....thank you for sharing that love with me!