My Sunday Worship (Welcome to Narnia)

February 21, 2011

For yesterday's hike we went to Grafton Notch State Park to hike part of the Appalachian Trail up to Old Speck Mountain. We didn't plan to summit with all this snow but simply to go as far as we could and see what there was to see. With the thermometer topping out around 15F it was a winter hike to be sure.

Whenever we stopped or slowed down our fingers and toes threatened mutiny from the cold. We huddled in our Bothy shelter for our lunch (you can see a photo of that on Damien's post) and even applied a heat packs to Celine's toes.

But it was all worth it. Very much so. And the kids concur.

The higher we got the more breath taking our surroundings became. And when we hit the winter wonderland of snow covered evergreens Celine and I could barely walk on as we just wanted to stop and soak in all the glory and majesty of the beauty around us.

It felt like entering Narnia.

Like John Muir, I feel nature is my cathedral. I am in awe and stand amazed and sometimes even with arms upraised (that's the charismatic in me) when I encounter such beauty in nature.

These photos and my memories of a fabulous Sunday hike remind me why I do this every weekend. Not every hike is so spectacular. But every hike has something to teach me. And yesterday's hike taught me one of life's recurring lessons, that God's glory can be found in the mountains, in trees, and in the snow.

The mountains is one place that I go to worship. To realize how insignificant, puny, and fragile (and susceptible to cold!) I am and how drop-down-on-my-knees beautiful the Creator is.