A Place of Renewal

I love living in the mountains. I love having tall trees outside my window (funny that this will change upon our moving to the new house!). I also love the fact that my wife loves the outdoors and we can frequently leave the big city of Show Low behind (haha) and drive up to where it is truly magnificent. Yesterday was one of those days as we decided to travel (on our 4th anniversary :) up to Black River. I had never been to Black River, but I have heard some good things. It was quite a drive up there through through wide valleys and by beautiful countryside. The roads were not bad; plenty of washboards in the dirt, potholes to dodge and birds to hit. Seriously I hit 3 birds on the way up! When we arrived I was very excited to get my fishing pole out and try this new spot. Long story short, the fishing was not good. I almost caught two crawdads though! So because the fishing was less than desirable, I decided to take a hike.

I hiked by myself to scout out the area and check out the river. I hiked past a few groups of people fishing and kept going. There were numerous times when I thought I should turn around, yet for some reason I kept going. I have no idea how long I was gone or how far I had gone, but I kept hiking. At last I came to a place where another portion of the river met up with the portion I had been following. It was spectacular. The waters met and 20 feet later they slowed into a 30 yard pool of very slow moving water. It was so tranquil, I had to stop and take it all in. I have often found myself being totally awed by God's hand of creation in this earth and yesterday was no excuse. I found a large rock and laid down. I looked up at the fast moving monsoon clouds and the rocky cliffs that emerged from the side of the green sloped hills. I closed off all thoughts that raced through my mind and just sat, silently. The time slowly melted away and with it, all the stress and worry that had built up in my life over the past few weeks. I could breathe again. I was renewed.

I rose from the rock feeling so much lighter of heart and mind. I felt almost childish as I fought to suppress my urge to jump into the river (won't happen again I can promise that) and I took off running on the path back to where my family was relaxing. It was only a short period of time, but I left that spot knowing that though my problems seemed large, they were not too big for God to conquer.