When the Great Smoky Mountains park was established, many people were forced to move from their homes and leave them. The park saved some and people can see them in many parts of the park today. These homes help us see what it was like to live in a home in past times before the park.

Every time I visit Cades Cove I am drawn to the homes that are there. I try to imagine what it was like to live in those cabins. They are only the structures now, but once they were filled with life - furniture and clothes and maybe a book or paper. I wonder what it was like to come and go through those doors and look through those windows at God's beauty.

We all search for home. We need shelter, but we want more then a house. We want a place to love family, to be quiet, to laugh and play. It is hard to loose a home, even when we move to a better house or a new place and are excited about the move. The memories of the old home are still there. There are things about the old place we will miss.

My grandparents also had to leave their home in the park. My grandfather built a cabin in Gatlinburg. We lost that home in the recent Gatlinburg fires. It is sad to think about not being to ever go that home again.

Today my Bible reading was in John 14. This chapter is part of the last conversation that Jesus would have with his disciples before the cross. He had just told them that he was going to a place where they could not go and that Peter would disown him 3 times. These must have been hard words for them to hear. And so he begins John 14:1

Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if not I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.

Jesus promised us home, a home that he is preparing for us. Later in chapter 14, he also promises more then just an eternal home but a home with us now. I found these words again today, John 14:23

Jesus answered, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

If you are searching for home, if you are grieving a lost home, then take comfort for Jesus will come and make a home with you and he promises a home with him forever.

And it will be a beautiful home, like the beautiful mountains God gives us.

For the past 3 years I have had 2 goals that I want to accomplish on New Year's Day - that are related and happen at the same time - I want to hike and on that hike decide on my words for the year.

I begin thinking about my words for the year as I get close to the end of the year. As you can read in my previous post my words last year were Trust and Rest. I struggled a little this time with finding my word.  I was drawn to the idea of "new" but I just couldn't get at it exactly. The verse and promise that kept coming to mind was 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

I also was having trouble finding a place to hike. New Year's Day this year was on a Sunday, which meant we couldn't leave until after church and we couldn't go very far since it gets dark around 5:30. Rain was also in the forcast and it had been rainy and cloudly all week. I still wanted to go somewhere new - somewhere we had never been. After looking on the Tennessee state park website I found a place to go that was only an hour away and it was supposed to stop raining after lunch. Thomas and I packed a quick lunch after church and headed to Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park. It is a small park with a short trail along the river. We did get a short hike in without rain and enjoyed our lunch of soup in a covered picnic shelter.

On the way to the park off in the distance I caught a glimpse of this church on a hill. I am not sure why I noticed the church. It was away off the road a little. It was easy to tell from a distance that it wasn't in good shape. I decided not to try to stop on our way to the park so we could get our hike in.

It was a beautiful drive on the way home. There were low hanging clouds below the mountains in the distance, but I couldn't find a good place to stop to take the picture. I just keep saying to Thomas how beautiful they were. I told Thomas about the church that I had seen and we started looking for it.

We found it in Mosheim, Tennessee. It was an abandoned church, the Blue Springs Lutheran congregation. I don't usually see beauty in abandoned things, but I was drawn this this church. And being the kind of day it was and the time of day it was, it was going to be hard to photograph. So I decided to practice some new skills. I made multiple images at different exposures so that I could use the HDR technique to get a good exposure.

So as I took pictures from different angles and perspectives and exposures, I found my word for the year. I guess really it is a phrase - "Finding the New." As I had to look to find a new place to hike and find my new words we have to seek for the new. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4: 23-24 that we are "to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

This year I want to find the new. I want to see God in new ways, to seek him more, to learn new things. It will not always be easy and it won't be what we expect. I have learned that God does things in his way and not our way, which is always better. There will be cloudy days and I want to find the new in even those days. And like this day, sometimes we will find the new in old places.