I just returned from a FABULOUS weekend in Iowa! I was absolutely blessed by my time in that beautiful state with dear friends and my sweet sister. I had the opportunity to be "the speaker" at Faith Bible Church's women's retreat. This is where we were before moving to Kansas. Greg was the youth pastor at Faith for about 7 years.
God is so good for bringing me to Iowa in the fall; it was breathtaking. As I drove through the rolling hills covered in gorgeous, inflamed tree tops within a soft green carpet on Sunday morning and listened to my favorite worship music, I thought there was no better worship service I could have attended that morning. Several times I was moved to tears at the creativity of my God. I was moved to tears that this Creator is in fact my God, my Heavenly Father. Then I drove by a series of small green hills with occasional creeks cutting into the landscape leaving beautiful crevices, perfectly etched.
To be honest, I was tempted to temporarily accept these scenes as truly heavenly until I rounded the highway curve to see a mangled deer on the shoulder where the still-present highway patrolman had just moved it. The scene was terribly out of place within my frame of mind. It was shockingly unfair as a matter of fact. I had never seen (I'm obviously not a butchering of my own meat, hunter-type) such a gory sight. I tried to reconcile my emotions...
I came to the conclusion that I am not in heaven yet; life can be painfully shocking. I also couldn't help feeling blessed by the scenery I drove through even after the deer. God's amazing creativity as revealed in His creation here on earth sustains me, strengthens me. I realized once again that here on earth the two co-exist, pain and sin with beauty and salvation. They don't go together very seamlessly - they allude to a home to come, my hope.
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