Sundog

I just love when God gives us gifts to delight our souls, don’t you?

This was the view out our window this morning. Wow! So beautiful, magnificent, awesome…

From weather.gov (or so the top return of a google search says): Sundogs are colored spots of light that develop due to the refraction of light through ice crystals. … The colors usually go from red closest to the sun, out to blue on the outside of the sundog. Sundogs are also known as mock suns or parhelia, which means “with the sun”.

Granted, in order to witness this creative genius, you have to be where it’s cold. Our highs are in the negatives to plus 2 today.

So I had to take another picture outside, with no visible man-made junk to interfere.

Brilliant, huh?

I love God. I love His gifts.

Our Trip to the Ocean: Things that Intrigued Me

We took a three-day drive to arrive at the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to a house across the street from the beach. Each morning, I met my little sister on the beach to watch the sunrise. It was amazing every single morning.

On our trip (the drive and the beach), I was intrigued by many things:

Sunrise at the beach…

 

Sunset at the beach…

 

We saw dolphins! They frolicked and flipped and dipped before us for about half an hour…

The way the sky looked at different times of the day, in different places…

 

Moonrise over the ocean…

The way I got to approach the ocean: as I walked up the path, it crested a dune. I heard the ocean before I saw it, and got goose bumps at the rushing sound…

Things I found on the beach (Yes, John, I found some shells 😊)…

 

Things that grow in that area…

kudzu!

crape myrtle trees / bushes

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live oak trees…

 

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roadside hibiscus along the Interstate *

 

mountains all covered with trees…

 

driving among the clouds…

And a cute, very tiny frog among grape leaves…

God’s creation stunned, awed, and amazed me. Our Lord is so beautiful!

 

*these photos were taken from google photos: the large live oak, two roadside hibiscus, crape myrtle tree. The rest of the photos are my own.

God is Great

So this was our view on our walk last night. We are blessed to have arrived at our family reunion, this year at the NC Outer Banks.

It’s been quite a week. We started a week ago with the death of a friend; a funeral on Friday. That put us two days late to our family reunion. God is good to allow the timing to be able to do both.

It was a hard three-day drive to get here from South Dakota (12 hours, 12 hours, 10 hours). My husband did all the driving (he’s the road warrior); I am the navigator (we use the real, paper maps, the kind that fold out). America is a beautiful country.

All the stress started melting away after dinner when we walked barefoot along the beach. We were awe-struck, gazing at the moonrise on the east side, and the sunset on the west.

We talked about God’s amazing handiwork. About God’s people. We walked along the sandy beach, thinking about Genesis 22.17, That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

And that we are now Abraham’s seed, because we have been grafted into God’s Family through Jesus Christ our Lord. We shall be blessed; we shall possess the gate of our enemies.

Realio Trulio Spring!

We’ve had a long, hard winter in our neck of the woods. At last, spring is here! I rejoice!

It’s Spring, realio and trulio!

We seek the blue sky, faces aglow.

Tiny buds with petals so coy,

Fresh breezes and rain our senses employ.

 

Oh, the joy, the ecstasy, the mind-freeing new birth!

The wonders peeking out from fresh and moist earth.

Gray skies and blue, clouds dark or white,

Paint us all over with God’s creative might.

 

Such magnificence leads me to bow in awe,

To dance with glee and shout, “Hurrah!”

And to praise Him in His might and grace,

And thank Him for this pleasant place.

 

Psalm 16.6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.