Just the way God made it by Sarah Linnen

I saw God, today... and yesterday.
When I told my friends back home about heading out to North Carolina this week, the comment was almost always "Wow! It is so beautiful out there!" but I never could've prepared myself for the beauty I was about to experience.

Waterfalls. We see pictures. We see them from a distance. We dream of them. However, most people never imagine that they would be handed the opportunity to swim underneath one. On our way home from the planned activity of sliding down a natural waterslide, we decided to take a pitstop on the side of the road just to steal a glance of a waterfall. As all the girls piled out of the van, we noticed that there were people in the pool surrounding the waterfall. With no discussion, we bolted for the water. Shoes were flying off, towels were thrown onto rocks, and we jumped in. The water was shockingly cold and the trek to the waterfall was trecherous with slippery rocks. At first, we were so cold we didn't want to immerse ourselves and swim out to the falls; we thought we'd settle for a picture with the waterfall majestically behind us. After the picture was taken, I took a look over my shoulder and said to myself, "SARAH! Are there waterfalls in Indiana?! You go back out there!" I listened to that voice in my head, turned back around,  and braved the cold. As soon as my entire body was submerged in the water, I was running on adrenaline. I swam my hardest out to the falls, and when I realized I wasn't going to be able to make it treading water alone, I switched my goal to be the rocks I could hop to get underneath the falls. This was an adventure. I swam, I jumped, I climbed, I hopped, and then... I made it. I was standing underneath a waterfall. The world seemed to disappear. No one seemed to be around me. There was no sound except for the water. My hand reached out to feel the enormous pressure the water was exerting- and there it was. Water. Pure water. Large drops were falling onto my fingertips, and small, misty drops were spraying my face. Water was all around me, and the only way to describe it was that I felt like I was water. I was completely connected to the falls, to the rock I was standing on, and to the water my feet were dunked in. Time had stopped. When it began again, I realized that I had just experienced God. There is no way to describle the beauty of this moment... just that it was God.

God showed Himself to me again this morning, as we hiked up Lookout Point on the campus of Montreat. The walk was long, the walk was steep, the walk was dirty, and the walk was gorgeous. As we got higher and higher up in the mountain, the trees continued to thin out and rays from the sun would shine through the trees and make the dew on the leaves glisten. The rocks and the roots we climbed over made the hike much more adventurous, and gave the explorer in me a thrill. When we got to the top, my mouth dropped at the awe-striking views I was experiencing. I couldnt help but to stand on a rock and spread my arms, just to make myself as big as possible, yet still feel so small. The view from the peak overlooked Montreat and gave the most beautiful portrait of the mountains. As far as I could see, there were tree-covered mountains. No telephone poles. No skyscrapers. No houses. Nothing. Just nature the way God created.

The past two days God has revealed Himself to me through His creation. The beauty of the water, the beauty of the rocks, the beauty of the trees, and the beauty of the mountains. Life is Good and God is Good.