Knoxville

"a wind has blown the rain away and blown

the sky away and all the leaves away,

and the trees stand. I think i too have known

autumn too long.''

                                             e.e. cummings



Some dear friends and I ventured to Knoxville this weekend for a concert/camping extravaganza. In between seeing Sufjan Stevens on Friday night and Mumford & Sons on Monday night, two of my favorite girls and I embarked into the Smoky Mountains for an overnight camping excursion. Everyone from fellow concert goers to Ranger Rick cautioned us that it would be cold and advised us to cancel our trip; that camping in the cold would be a miserable experience. Fortunately we were hard headed enough to not listen to them and strapped on our packs for the 7 mile hike.

It was the first snow we've seen all year and the further up we went, the more snow we found. Such a beautiful contrast between white snow and still green leaves on the trees. Over and over again we made the comparison to entering Narnia in all of its magical glory.

And yes, it was cold. But it was unanimously voted that hiking in the snow and camping in the bitter cold was one of the best weekends of our lives. While most people would probably be reminded of the writings in Thoreau's Walden in such an environment, I was continually reminiscing a talk I heard N.D. Wilson give once on God's abundant sovereignty as evidenced by nature.

Wilson made the point that the book of Genesis says that everything came from 'ex nihilo'-'from nothing'. There was nothing and then God spoke it into existence and that He was continuing to speak things into existence every day. He speaks the snow into existence, the trees, the clothing on our backs, etc. With such evidence of His faithfulness and attention to detail all around us, why don't we trust Him more with the concerns of our lives?

A few other notable points from N.D. Wilson's talk:

-God's personality is big.  He's the maker of both the cute bunnies and the red tail hawks that eat them. He made both rainbows and storms. We live in a magical world. We see God's huge personality in His creation.

-God's personality is not comfortable. He's both majestic and meek. To quote C.S. Lewis: "He's not a tame lion, but He's good.''

-Both of the above points means God is the authority. Learn to live in His authority. It's the best place to live.

-Don't limit your faith in realism. Moses (through God's power) turned a staff into a snake and a river (the Nile) into blood. Accept miracles. Accept a power that is uninhibited by our earth's rules.

I hope you will be encouraged by these few words to see God's creation as an attribution to His immense sovereignty.

Blessings,

KB
 P.S.

Enjoy a little Ray LaMontagne on this chilly evening.