Sunday, May 20

Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite


This past week's journey to the mountains kept us busy working, eating, playing, hiking, 'fishing', exploring, making new friends, and taking lots of pictures. We spent Tuesday-Thursday at Hume Lake Christian Camps working to get things ready for this summer's tens of thousands of kids and adults. This place annually serves over 500,000 meals, hosts 45,000 people, and kids purchase more than $370,000 of candy. Barb did everything from washing walls to working in the laundry. I was with a group of six guys who raked and piled pine needles. Dirty, hot, sweaty work, but well worth the labor, considering they fed you five times a day, gave you a four-star room, and the company was great.



We drove down into Kings Canyon Friday, taking lots of pictures along the way. Then it was on to Oakhurst, where we stayed that night to get an early start into Yosemite Park Saturday morning. We hadn't been to Glacier Point since about 1970, so it was great seeing it again. We were greeted with a new visitor's center, about 4 times as much parking and 4 times as many restrooms! The foreign hoards ascended in cars and buses, bringing their cameras, kids and dogs for an event they would never forget.

Then we descended into the valley where tens of thousands greeted us. Couldn't find a parking spot close to a restroom except in back of the store at the village (thankfully), where we were able to eat lunch at a table with a young German couple before heading to the exit road to find another place to stop for pictures. Please don't visit the valley on a weekend unless you really have to. If so, be prepared by wearing your best suit of patience and goodwill.



We were out of the park by 3:45 and had a long drive to Merced, then north to Stockton. Good memories and so we're making plans to return. You can see some of the Yosemite pictures here: http://wordydave.zenfolio.com

Sunday, May 13

Spectral Analysis



As filthy, polluted, stained and dying our world and culture are, remnants of beauty will always draw us to that perfection in life that can't be seen anywhere else. Flowers will bloom in the worst of slums. Smiles will transcend the inhumanity of man. Kind words will give hope to the desperate soul.

The Bible speaks of the "beauty of holiness" --- a beauty that God alone possesses. Unfathomable, invisible, incomprehensible --- but a beauty that can be partly glimpsed in this life and will be fully revealed in the next. We begin to see it as our eyes are opened to the truth of His Word, the wonder of who He is and the realization of what He has done for those who love and trust Him.

As there are light waves that we cannot see, so there is a spiritual beauty that is yet to be discovered. May God's Spirit reveal our desperate need to be healed from our blindness.