So this morning I realized how far away from the serene forest I was. The city beautiful woke me up with a symphonic melody of car alarms, ambulance sirens and noisy motorcycles. Breathe in... Breathe ou...*cough *cough... out. Yeah.
So in day two of our Metamorphosis adventure we finally settled into our backwood surroundings. There was the beautiful little creek that lazily pushed its way past our campsite. The creek was cool, clear and relaxing. Many of the students walked up and down it finding rocks, smoothed over by time, and skipping them or saving them to take home.
In the morning I had the students get off by themselves to try and spend some quiet time alone with God and nature and their scriptures. As I did this on my own, I began to think of how precious our time with God is. Yes I know that we can speak with Him anytime, since he is omnipresent and omniscient. But how often do I exclude everything around me to really hang with God?
When my wife and I first met we would spend hours just sitting and staring at eachother and smiling. I remember my face would ache from cheezing so big with her around. We could just sit and stare and sit and laugh. I still love to look at her, but I have to admit I get busy sometimes dupe myself into thinking every minute I have needs to be "purposeful". For some stupid reason I think merely staring into my wife's eyes on end doesn't provide a big enough return... But to her it means the world.
When is the last time my face hurt from smiling at my savior so much and enjoying His company? Do you think He has been waiting for you to stop being "purposeful" and busy and simply look into his eyes? As a parent don't you just LOVE when your child stops, jumps up in your lap and gives you a bear hug? Your kids aren't thinking, "I have a purpose to build a relationship with my father, therefore I must show him an outward display of affection to elicit a favorable response and further my inheritance" (unless your child is an android). They just LOVE you...
After the quiet time was over I heard some of the girls splashing around in the creek. I zoned back into reality and got ready for the task at hand. We were going to go on a hike that afternoon...
