"And God saw that it was Good..."

I love the story of Creation. Our God is so creative, so thoughtful, so powerful... It blows my mind how people can look at the life cycle of trees, the position of the earth and sun, the natural instincts of animals and still think that it all just spontaneously came to be.

Maybe that's why I have such a passion and love of the outdoors... it's like walking through God own personal art gallery... I'm reminded of that Bible verse... if God puts that much thought and love into the "lives" of flowers, how much more will He love and care for us? Walking through the forests, hills, and wilderness, it feels like I'm surrounded by God's Glory and Love.

We Valleyviewers went on an amazing hike on Sunday. First time we've done Peterson Creek in the winter. It was great fun. ("good times") I think there was more slipping and sliding then there was hiking. I succeeded in ripping my brand new pants right at the bum (naturally... I was able to return them though), Rebekah partly fell in the creek, and Andrew "had a terrible time". This time though we had some new comers - We initiated Ryan Unger, Ryak, Andrew K, and little Curtis into our "Peterson Creek Club". They handled it pretty well, although Curtis had quite the shock when he realized I was really serious about bringing waterproof gear and hiking shoes. He seemed to have a different idea then we do about "hikes". :P
All in all, I had a blast and was quite happy to be surrounded by God's beauty and God's people...