An Eye on the Prize

"Whose dumb idea was this anyway?" I asked.
"Pretty sure it was yours," says my friend Carol, "Don't you remember?"
"Yah, well it seemed like a good idea at the time."

That was the conversation we had on Sunday afternoon while perched on the mountainside 3 kilometres above the little town of Yale in the Fraser Canyon. My legs were screaming, my lungs were gasping for oxygen but I was determined to get to the end of this trail. Why? Because there was a stupid piece of tupperware hidden in a cave, just waiting for me to find it!

I know, I know... I'm obsessed with geo-caching. Yes, I can say it out loud and yes, Terry, I know that makes me a geek. But we all need something we're passionate about right? This is my thing. I love the challenge of finding something that's been hidden in the middle of acres & acres of forest... testing my observation skills and getting me to places I would have never considered before. And when I am soaked from the rain, splattered in mud and covered in a stinging nettle rash I keep my eye on the prize. It is what keeps me going when it seems too hard and I want to give up.


"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Sometimes the life lessons are just so obvious. I love it when God does that.

In the Beginning God Created....

Eleah and I went geocaching last Saturday in Derby Reach Park. We were making our way down to the bottom of a ravine just as the sun was starting to set. That's when I noticed these 'strange creatures' coming up all over the place and I couldn't help but take a picture or two! They were just so cute! They looked like a bunch of little green people coming up from the ground.

It was right then that I wished that I could have been there when God was creating the earth so I could ask him all the questions that I have. Why did he decide to make just these ferns come up like this?
(Someone, somewhere started calling them fiddleheads.) Was it just for me, just so I could enjoy this tiny moment in my life? He could have chose to make every plant the same. Every bird look like a robin. Every animal look like a cow.
He could have made the whole earth look like the prairies (I'm not saying that's a bad thing! lol) and we would have never known the difference.

Instead he made the world with mind-blowing variety, eco-systems so diverse that most of the time it just leaves me speechless and full of thankfulness. And questions.

The Beach

Tony and I just spent four wonderful days on Texada Island. We rented a little cabin by the beach... far, far away from life, work and reality. One morning I went for a walk along the beach. The wind storm from the night before had died down and the morning by the bay was blissfully quiet. I sat on a piece of driftwood, the only person along this stretch and closed my eyes.

I had been told what to expect but still I was so amazed at what I heard. In the quiet of that morning I heard the beach's song.

Did God, when He created this earth, say to himself, "Let's make this beach special. It will be a gift to those who take the time to listen?" The beach, you see, is made up entirely of tiny pea size pebbles. Worn smooth by time, they move with the waves and every time a wave rolls away the pebbles make the most musical sound, like wooden wind chimes in the breeze.

Then God and I had a wonderful little talk and I said thanks for the song on the beach.

I couldn't keep from smiling.

Anticipation

I am going to Disneyland in a few months. Yes... again.

Those of you who know me, know I love Disneyland and just about anything related to Walt Disney. I've been asked many times why I love it all so much and I'm really not sure but it started when I was about ten years old. My first trip to the Magic Kingdom was in 1976... the Americans were celebrating their bicentennial that year and there was red, white and blue everywhere. One huge celebration! It was incredible.

Walt Disney himself had an amazing imagination and it seemed like he could see into the future. His attention to detail was masterful.

Here are a few bits of trivia that you might not know about Disneyland. Did you know that:

• Gum is not, and never has been, sold inside Disneyland. Any gum found on the ground is scraped up immediately. The moment Disneyland closes the garbage is searched out by crews with flashlights.


• All the gold used throughout Disneyland is real.


• There is a gymnasium inside the Matterhorn. Next time you see me, ask me why.


• The lady who played Tinkerbell during the fireworks jumped off the Matterhorn till she was 65 years old!


• Up until 1982 the Frontier Shooting Arcade was repainted every night. It took 2000 gallons of paint a year to keep it fresh and new looking. (now they use lasers instead of lead bullets)

So by now you're probably asking yourself, "Why is she writing all this? Does she have a point?

I do. I've thought about it all day today. Because I've been wondering why I don't have that same sense of anticipation, the wish that the days would hurry along, before I go to heaven. I know it's going to be incredible. I know that there will be celebrating and singing. God built it with me in mind with a supernatural attention to detail. He is the master creator. The streets will be paved with gold and there will be a mansion built just for me. I will never grow old there and I will feel like a kid all day long.

I really do want to be excited and filled with anticipation about meeting my Lord face to face for the first time. I think I just need to read His "brochure" again...

"Thanks God... I Found it!"

Have you ever thought that there are just too many wonderful things in this world for you to absorb? That God made this world with so many hidden gems & secrets just for you to find?

I have. I think that all the time, every day.

Yesterday Tony and I went geo-caching in a little known park north of Campbell Valley Park and the moment we stepped off the road onto the trail I was in awe of the beauty around me. The trees were dripping with bright green moss and huge ferns grew all around. It was like stepping onto a green painter's palette. I never knew this little park existed and I've lived in Langley for almost 40 years! Can you imagine what else is out there for us to find?


Like I said, we were geo-caching - one the hottest new hobbies to take hold of people these days. In a nutshell this is what you do.... you use your GPS unit to locate a box with specific co-ordinates. The box (or geo-cache) has been hidden somewhere on the planet. They are hidden everywhere, (that's me pulling a cache out of a tree) with little trinkets and a logbook inside. There are thousands just in the lower mainland. It's so addictive, the moment you say the words, "found it!!" you are ready to find the next one.

Why is it that we don't treat God's hidden wonders the same way? I truly believe that God made all this just for our enjoyment. And what do we do? We race by, going 120 on the freeway because we have to "get there." One of the greatest lessons I learned from my parents was that the holiday, the adventure, your day-to-day life, begins the moment you leave the driveway, not when you arrive at your destination. God must truly puzzle over the way we race around His planet, trying to keep up, missing everything.


Thank you God for Your creation. Please help me appreciate what a gift it truly is.