In my 3 part review of our family's time in the Smokey Mountains in the interest of brevity (and I did try to be brief) I did not mention much about the beauty of the setting in which our little getaway resort was located. Here's a one of the many beautiful pictures I took of the mountains during our stay.
Of course, every gaze from the balcony of our cabin overlooking the National Park area was breath taking but one particular view had a profound effect on me.
On Friday, after arriving at our resort, before we even went to our cabin for the first time, several members of our family walked down to the resort's pool area. It over looked a large valley surrounded by mountain peaks in the distance. For a first view, or any view for that matter, it was amazing.
As I stood there taking it all in with my wife and other loved ones around me my focus was on God. One can only look at the beauty of nature so blatantly evident in the Smokey Mountains and think of it's creator.
It's undeniable. The splendor, the order, the color are just testimony to the One who spoke it all into existence. How can anyone see it and be convinced that it is there only because of millions of years of coincidental, chance, events and chemical mutations?
I'm not going to get into defending the fact that God created the heavens and the earth. It's been the truth from the beginning. See Genesis chapter 1. However when I see sights like I did that day my mind and heart can't help but turn toward God and then to the gospel.
God, the creator and maintainer of the amazing natural landscape we all saw that day is the same God who loves you and me, and all hopelessly lost sinners. The book of Romans tells us that He loved us so much that he sacrificed His one and only son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for our sins, while we were yet still his enemies, so that we could be reconciled to Him.
I called my nephew, Bobby up to the railing over looking the valley, put my arm around him and in a private moment between just the two of us, told him what I was on my heart.: God and His amazing love for us. I pointed out to him that the beauty of the Smokeys and how it points to God. I reminded him of the fact that, in spite of what anyone else in the world thinks of, says to, or does to us, God who created the Tennessee mountains and the entire earth loves and protects us with all His power. If that kind of God is for us, how can anyone be against us?
Because he's still so young, I don't know if Bobby fully understood the point I was making and how essential it is to his faith and his identity. But it's my prayer that someday he'll remember that moment and it will help and strengthen him. I pray that he will understand that as Christians we are children of the King whose kingdom and beauty will last forever. The awesome beauty of the Smokey Mountains is just a small preview of His coming glory.
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