The Hyperion Hike

today was positively beautiful! Simply the picture of quintessential Fredericksburg autumn. So what did I do? Did my best to capture it. The friends were not much in the mood for photographs, which is fine because the trees and buildings absolutely were.

 

"Your beauty was perfected because of My splendor which I bestowed on you."    -Ezekiel 16:14

"I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD."   -Ezekiel 37:14

Okay, I'm not exactly Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones. But I will admittedly bend this passage to apply to my life. God is settling me in this land. Spiritually He's getting me acquainted with being a foreigner on this Earth. Nothing in this world will bring me complete and sustainable satisfaction. Nothing I do on my own will ever be enough to escape this fact. But He sent His Son so that through His power I could find joy in the hope of salvation (Ephesians 1:18-19). And through this joy, there is so much beauty to be found in life. Like the beauty He perfected in Fredvegas today. Beauty that brings peace and settles my heart in a land far from home. A land of my own. And I can know that the LORD has done it. 

As Thelma Mothershed said upon reflection of her involvement in the Little Rock Crisis of 1957 (on which I am currently writing a thesis)...

...more on her and The Nine later, no doubt!