I’ve been on a director’s planning retreat for the past few days. Here’s a view from Whidbey Island during my morning solo time. It was good times with the Lord. I always seem to connect with God when I’m out amongst nature.

Any place in particular you enjoy spending time with the Lord?

Sitting in the back of the bus, the road rumbles under me. It’s early morning and the fog is still thick. Passing through a cornfield, I see it; a burst of light amongst the gray. God’s glory is shining upon that spot. It makes me ask, “Why does god shine on some, but not on others.” We drive on and the fog breaks, but the question lingers.
As we continue it hits me - our pursuit isn’t waiting for the sun to shine and warm our faces. It is us who should chase the sun thorough the fog.

Somewhere over the Rockies we fly over this turquoise oblong lake that lies amongst the mountains. The surface is smooth, calm and I imagine there’s no one around for hundreds of miles.

I will find that lake someday. It’s somewhere north of Provo, where Utah meets Idaho. I will find it and swim out to the center and say that I am nothing. Just a tiny speck amongst giants. But the one that created all of this, the peaks and the valleys, He knows this nothing. He knows where I am. And that creator is big, bigger than anything these eyes can see from horizon to horizon. He is big and yet he knows nothing. He knows nothing by name. He is my Father.

And as I swim out in the turquoise deep, I know he can hear me, past the myriad of mountains, past the vastness of this earth. He says I am with you.