We have a rather long trip to church so we pack our lunch to eat on the way home. One of the best-kept secrets in these parts is Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinios. We stopped at Fern Cliff and enjoyed our lunch in a nice wooded picnic site. Then we took a light hike in a forested gorge. The forest is a mix of hardwoods and other deciduous species along with some yellow and white pines. At the bottom of the gorge is a creek that is framed by steep sandstone bluffs on either side. After a mile or so, the gorge dead-ends at a sheer face, which has a nice waterfall during the rainy season. Not much but a trickle right now but that allows one to hike up the path of the waterfall up into a deep overhang. There was a young man up there on this Sunday playing his mandolin. After the hike, we stopped at a nice lake in the same park. Beth and I reclined on a bench in the shade of two large pine trees as the children chased minnows in the shallow water of the lake bank. The weather was a perfect 70- something, low humidity and a nice stiff breeze.

Providentially, the following 3 hymns were sung during worship (from the red Trinity Hymnal).

122 (God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory), 116 (For the Beauty of The Earth), and 119 (I Sing the Almighty Power of God) which were all the more meaningful having read your blog on Saturday.

In 122, I particularly like the stanza,

Clearer still we see thy hand in man whom thou hast made for thee;
ruler of creation’s glory, image of thy majesty.
Music, art, the fruitful garden, all the labor of his days,
are the calling of his Maker to the harvest feast of praise.

Jeff | 09.23.02 - 10:51 am | #