All Creation Worships

A few weekends ago, my brother and sister-in-law and Wes and I decided to forego our Sat routine of yardwork and housecleaning to go and play in the woods. Sometimes, you just have to break your routine.

And....I was anxious to play with my new camera. (I LOVE my new camera!)

It was a beautiful day...sun was shining...we took the top off the Jeep and met Brian and Danielle at the gate to Montreat where we were going hiking.

We hiked a few miles in, up Gray Beard trail with all three dogs frolicking off the leashes. We spent about an hour playing in the river pools,catching crawdads, exploring. We were having a lovely, quiet, Sat afternoon.

and then....

CRASH!!!

We looked up to see the blackest of the blackest sky heading our direction. The wind began to blow. We were so 'covered' in the thick of the woods we never saw the storm coming until it was too late.
Needless to say, we knew it was time to bolt. Fast.

So we began to run. RUN two miles down a very rocky path. Trying our best to beat the looming storm chasing us. It was getting darker and darker and the thunder and lightning was getting closer and closer. The wind started blowing. and then...

All of a sudden the sky opened up and the floods came. A torrential downpour of
rain. Within min we were soaked through our clothes and I could hear the sloshing of water in my running shoes.

We continued running at an all out sprint for the cars.
I was the last one down the mountain as I was desperatly trying to cover my camera bag while maintaining a sprint, for fear I was getting my new (very expensive) camera soaked. Wes was in the front trying as hard as he could to make it back to the jeep...yes, you got it, the top was off.

Needless to say we rode home in puddles. Standing water on the floorboards and in the seats. We didn't mind so much as we were all drippy wet anyways...we laughed and laughed. The harder the rain came down, the harder we laughed at the situation.

It was a doozy of a storm! We lost power at our house the rest of the weekend due to a funnel cloud that touched down close to where we live destroying the power lines and poles.

And no...my camera wasn't ruined. (praise God)

As I was later loading my pictures on the computer and thinking about the power of that storm I was reminded how even creation worships God. Each thing created in His likeness for His Glory. I think that is why I like taking pictures so much. It causes me to stop, slow down, look and take notice of the things around me. To see the beauty of Creation around me.

For a moment on that Sat we did that too. We stopped, slowed down, and just enjoyed the creation around us. We were worshiping. And His creation was worshiping as it always is. We just took time to notice and join in.