Psalms 74:16-17
The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon.
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.
Well it wasn't exactly winter - but it was early spring when we spent spring break at Fall Creek Falls. I have this dream of one day being able to see this beautiful place in the snow. This year there was a late spring snow the day before we came and there were still some snow and ice left. I did post a few of these images right after we came back but I have finally had the time to go back and look at all of them. i am making this post for my other friends you love Fall Creek Falls. Psalms 74:16-17 The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.
0 Comments
Last week Thomas and I did some hiking in the Smokies and we went to Little Greenbriar School in the Metcalf Bottoms area. This was someplace that I had heard about but had never been. It was a beautiful short hike with mountain laurel along the way. I thought about all the children who went to this one room school and traveled this little trail to school each day. This would have been the time that my grandparents were going to a school like this one in another area of the park. I thought about how different my education was and then how different my children's education was from mine. I also thought about how some things would be the same. Children in the early 1900's looked out windows and wished they were outside and children today still look out school windows and wish they were outside. Windows are great gifts. They allow us to be inside protected from the elements while seeing the world outside. For many homes in the past and in some places still today they are luxuries that we take for granted in our time and place. Windows are also very hard to photograph. Either you expose for the inside of the room in which case the window is overexposed and you just see white light and no detail or you expose for the window and the room is dark. I had tried to get a picture through a window in a church in Cades Cove two years ago and did OK, but I wanted to try again using some of the things I have learned from my photography club critiques. This was my result. I enjoyed trying different settings and working till I got what I wanted. When I was finished I sat a few moments on the bench and just looked out the window. There was no one else there. Thomas had gone outside because the musty smell was bothering his allergies. As I sat there in this quiet and peaceful place I thought about these verses from Psalm 46 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling." “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." When I look out a window I want to never take them for granted - trusting God to be my ever present help in times of trouble. Saturday I spent a beautiful day in the mountains with my friend, Eileen. It was the perfect day. The weather was just right - not too hot or too cold. The sky was clear blue with no hint of clouds or rain. It was so good just to be there. Everything was green and the air was clear. We went to Cades Cove and then to Tremont. Those places brought wonderful scripture to my mind. The thing that is so special about Cades Cove is that is has wide open fields surrounded by mountains. It made me think of one of my favorite verses about God's love. Ephesians 3:17-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge –that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. As we made our way around the cove we came to "the tree." It is quite a famous tree - you see it in many pictures of the cove. What is so special about it and what drew me to it is that it stands all alone in the field. I had hoped to see it filled with green leaves but they were just coming in so you see all the intricate branches. It stands so strong and true, like God's love. He knows us and loves even the smallest of branches. After our trip around the cove we stopped at Tremont. Thomas and I had been there last summer for the first time and we hiked to Spruce Flat Falls. There was a road that I had read that kept going and followed the Middle Prong of the Pigeon River. So we went off to explore - and we were rewarded, richly. There was beauty everywhere. And of course I thought of my words for this year, "living water of life" and this verse, John 7:38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. It was a truly wonderful day and I so grateful for the time I got to spend in God's world and all the things he taught me and the way he touched my heart. I will put some of the pictures I took in a slideshow below. I still have a lot of work to do on the images that I took but these are a quick few of my favorites so far. |
AuthorI am a daughter, a wife, a mother and now a grandmother. I am wonderfully loved first by Jesus Christ then by two wonderful parents, three sisters and their families, a special husband, two extraordinary children and a wonderful son in law and daughter in law, two new grandsons, and dear Christian friends. I seek now to serve Christ in new ways in my retirement! My Portfolio site Seeing God's Word in His World - my other blog site
Archives
November 2017
|