We’ve been witness to God’s magnificent creation this week, as we’ve traveled from Minnesota through three states to reach South Carolina.  Both of us have been showing our age, as knees and hips ache and refuse to move as they should.  Even through this whole aging process, it’s been a wonderful time for us, after twenty years without venturing on a road trip.

Yesterday we crossed a massive expanse of lush greenery to Table Rock Mountain State Park.  As the car did all the work of climbing, we sat back and wallowed in the beauty – trees that reach to heaven, trunks covered with a veil of vining plants, trickles of sunshine pushing through the sparse empty spaces. When we reached our destination, we were greeted by a green mountain lake.  We walked a short distance and discovered a lovely falls, encased with solid, flat rock, which reminded me of the still waters referred to in Psalm 23.

The waters weren’t still.  Instead the force of the falling liquid, pounded against those rocks with great pressure and power – kind of like the pressures of every day.  When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it like that pounding surge.  We struggle with pain, adversity, worry, doubt and fear, yet the power of God is available in every circumstance.

When we come to the end, problems dissolve.  We come to rest in that peaceful water, no longer bruised or broken by the trials of living.  God carries us to that place.  He walks with us through all the perils of our existence and lifts us in His arms, when we cannot make it alone.  This is the good news we have as Christians.  It is too good to hang onto and hoard for ourselves.  Our world will not last forever.  The signs of its demise are everywhere, but we can rest in the knowledge that life goes on for the believer.  Share that great news with someone today.