Country Roads and Summer Afternoons

So i had a little adventure with the fam jam yesterday afternoon.  As it turns out country drives in China are just as nice as they are in the States.

We went out for lunch, and then we kept driving around out into the countryside.  The views were beautiful.  Green valleys with streams, wild flowers, and crops (i found some wheat and it made me feel at home!).  Ridges of foothills were all around us, and then there were amazing 14,000 foot mountains back in the distance. 

We stopped at this pretty little stream.

Cue Cue (the Chinese helper who lives with the family) and i picked wild flowers for the kids and we picked and ate wild strawberries. while the kids had water gun fights with their parents.

For a while it rained on us.... but mostly it was sunny, beautiful, and a good time.

I hope that i get to come back here again... it is SOOO Beautiful. God's majesty and creativity is all around; we just have to open our eyes to it.  So open your eyes to it today.  See His glory before you.

Tiny little wild strawberries.

part of the valley

Cue Cue picking strawberries

Ariel and some of our flowers

Gabriel with some more of them

We don't speak the same language, but we are becoming friends

Feels like home.... fields of grain. 

Don't forget to take in the many ways that God displays His glory before you.  Some confront you boldly like a painted sunset or a fully lit starry sky.  Others are more subtle and carry with them the satisfaction of finding a hidden treasure, like the beauty of a field of wheat rolling in the wind or perfect rows of corn growing and full of life. Other times God uses these displays to remind us of his attributes.  For example, the sound of a stream.  The water flowing over the rocks to get where it is going brings a sense of peace from my feet to my ears.  Reminds me that Jesus is the Prince of peace.  
God made this world to show His glory, and it does if you let it.  Creation teaches endless lessons about God when we posture ourselves to be taught.  


Rom. 8:19-25:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but⁾ because of him who subjected it, in hope that⁾ the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

We are here to be agents of that redemption. Plain and Simple.