Still Enjoying the Beauty of This World

In my last post, I spoke about living in a fallen world. However, just because we have to deal with pain, death, sorrow, and tears in this life....it doesn't mean that we are without enjoyment in this world. For instance, yesterday, I was walking with my boys through the nature preserve across the street from our house. We crossed a prairie and I enjoyed watching my boys chase each other and giggle. Then we followed a trail that ran along Bear Creek. My boys enjoyed throwing rocks into the water and finding living and dead crayfish. The sky was beautiful with varying colors of gray and black clouds interspersed with glimpses of blue. You could see heavy rain falling in the distance in a white veil and the occasional sound of thunder. As we started to head back, we took a new trail that ran between the creek and an embankment. Then Garrison shouted, "Dad, an elk!" About 30 yards away from us stood the largest bull elk I had ever seen. It was the size of a horse and it had a huge rack. It was calmly eating leaves off of a tree near the embankment. We stood in awe and watched it for about 10 minutes. I took a couple of pictures with my cell phone camera...but you just can't see the elk very well. But, as Garrison said "We'll always have our memory of seeing it." It was cool and such a beautiful moment to see wildlife that closely. God gives us glimpses of heaven even as we struggle to make it through this life.