God Is In Us

I recently went to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia to go on a canopy zipline tour with Mom, her friend Monica, and Monica's husband Timmy.  I went on a zipline for the first time and rappelled at the end and went with Timmy on an exhilarating and slightly frightening motorcycle ride.  After the tour, we went to a large river where people often go white water rafting.  We made our way through the trees and between large rocks, jumping from one to the other like forest spirits.  Once at the water's edge, I turned away from the river and looked back into the trees.  There were large boulders amongst the trees and some trees grew on top of the rocks.  Water ran over and around the rocks and trees, finding new paths down the hill mountainside and to the river.  I went to sit on a large stone at the bottom of all the little waterfalls and took in the splendor.  I heard God's voice there, through my soul.  He said:


I am in the rock.  I am in the trees.  I am in the water.  I am in you.  I am in them.  I am the tree that takes root and grows in the most impossible places.  I am the water that finds a different path, or, when there is none, makes its own, always moving certainly along its course.  I am the Light of the World and I also reside in the shadows cast upon the way. 


Shadows from limbs and leaves overhead crisscrossed my arms with their shadowed pattern and I felt God in everything in me and around me.  I find that I am closer to God when I am in nature, feeling His presence in everything and everyone.  He truly is everywhere and I feel that saying Amen shouldn't be a dismissal of a conversation with God, but should rather be an acknowledgment of His continuing presence.  The world comes even more alive when I am reminded that it moves and breathes with the Spirit of God.  After I turned back to watch the river, I took to staring at the mountainside along the opposite bank.  Trees thickly covered the mountain and as I stared at the greenery of the millions of leaves, my eyes unfocused while at the same time focusing intently.  The concrete scenery before me turned into swirls of paint and color and feeling.  As the breeze stirred the leaves, I saw the mountain, the trees, nature, breathe, faintly but surely to those who look.  It breathed with God's lungs and served as a testament that He lives.