Blue Ridge Escape in Blowing Rock, NC - Tara Thompson

Three different hikes, and this, the easiest, most simple of the three was where I found rest. Actually I’m not even quite sure you could consider it a hike. We drove up to this point and proceeded to play a game of hide and seek. However, you had to climb to get a good hiding place. I began climbing rocks that were monstrous and there were a few times I feared for my life (a bit of an exaggeration, I’ll admit). As I climbed, and climbed, I finally got to the top of this rock, after thrusting myself into it and bruising my WHOLE BODY (another exaggeration, but I did have a lot of bruises, I get competitive during hide and seek..). I laid down in pain and exhaustion, and couldn’t find my breath. It wasn’t from the climb though, it was from the view. I felt as though I could see for miles, miles of beauty and awesomeness. Each tree was a different shade of yellow, orange, or red. I started thinking about how crazy that was, when you really think about it. Here I am looking off into mountain after mountain after mountain, filled with hundreds, of thousands of trees, and there were no two trees that were the same; every single tree was different! I couldn’t hold in the tears. How is it that a Creator, so imaginative and incredible, who created this whole world, and created each and every single difference on each and every single tree on every single different mountain, could call me His beloved? Not only has he thought out every one of the trees that I was awe struck by, but he thought out every piece of my being, and knows all of the hairs on my head. I can’t get over how insanely cool that is.

Whenever I forget, I’m always led back to this realization. However, what I’m noticing more and more is that God loves using nature to lead me back to it, probably because there isn’t much that gets to me more than a rustle of the colored autumn leaves, or a gentle breeze that brushes my hair back. Being up there on that huge rock, I felt so close to my Creator. My constant thoughts, and worries subsided for a while, and I felt a satisfaction that seems so rare these days. I knew he wanted me there, at that moment, to witness His holiness. He took all His simple creations, and used them to speak to me, so clearly.