“All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your faithful shall bless you.” (Psalm 145:6)
I have just returned from the grand golden state of California and a visit with my brother Eric and family there — a blessed reunion after three years. There’s something about that place that calls me home. I don’t know, I was born there and maybe that holds sway more than I realize.
Where the California Hawkinsons live is in the Central Valley which is two hours from everywhere, it seems! It’s a day trip paradise. And every direction leads one to the incredible beauty of God’s creation. We logged over 1200 miles in a week!
One day it was the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, Muir Woods Marin County and the Napa Valley. Another it was the rolling foothills leading to Sonoma and gold rush country. Just getting started, the Carmel Coast and Monterey Peninsula brought us to the lone pine of Pebble Beach and the Pacific’s mighty rolling tide. Finally, it was the majestic grandeur of Yosemite National Park’s granite faces and mountain peaks.
All of this beauty lifts my spirit, and bids me to find a grateful spirit of worship and awe, realizing that I experience God’s presence through God’s creation. I make the connection of the psalmist, that all creation gives thanks, bears witness to the wonderful creator, and drags my spirit along for the ride. I bless the One, I thank the One who creates with such beauty and power, and who has planted us as human beings in its environs to flourish in beauty and abundance, and to join the in the thankful song that creation sings.
I was hoping to include a couple pictures here, but cannot get my computer to obey. Maybe that’s as it should be, after all. Maybe, instead, more meaningful will be for you to join me in getting up and getting out into the fresh air and glowing autumn to ind gratitude, right where you are. Whatever the day is bringing, I guarantee you there’s a beautiful show going on outside! Find it, and join the trees and hills, the water and the woods, the gleaming city and the bright endless blue skies in praise and thanks.
Take a walk or a run or a bike or a ride and catch the upcoming sunset, or set the alarm and get down to Gillson park at 7:02 tomorrow morning when the sun will surely rise on the horizon and begin to warm up a new day. For our God is most surely with us, and creation is a daily and even momentary reminder.
Bless the One whose mighty works are laid bare for your eyes to see, your ears to hear, your nose to smell, and your hands to touch.
Love from here!
Peter Hawkinson
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