The Wonder of God

Sometimes I am completely awed by God. I'm not talking about an esoteric experience, some worship service that wowed me and caused me to feel convicted so I sway my arms and feel tingly. We can lift our hands and God designed our bodies to feel tingly at certain times, but I'm not talking about worshiping in the emotion of the moment. I'm talking about being awed by God, about giving in to the wonder of it all.

Some time ago I lived in southern California. When I was there I would sometimes venture off on a Saturday to the Angeles National Forest to hike around, see nature and talk with God. I remember one afternoon, I parked my truck and began a 'full steam ahead' traipse up the side of the foothill. The air felt less smoggy here, the green trees stood high above the soft ground and I was at one with nature! I found myself having to step over rocks and crawl under trees. I think I broke a couple spiderwebs and got a more than a little frustrated that there was not a path for me to walk on.

After I had ventured on for another ten minutes or so, I came upon a dirt walkway just as two teenagers were passing by (with a look of surprise at this man suddenly emerging from the foliage). I dusted myself off and headed in the opposite direction of them and within just a few minutes I was back in the parking lot, my truck about 100 feet to my right. I stopped momentarily and considered the fact that had I looked for a path, I probably would have found it. What compounded things further was when I turned around to look up the trail from where I had come, there was a sign right behind me that said "Stay on the Trail! Rattlesnake Population!".