Have you ever............

...........come across a picture that needs no explanation? I did. It is my niece and her husband, at their wedding reception two weeks ago.
I am honored to share it with you:

Road Trip

About ten days ago my husband, daughter and I loaded up the car and headed to Louisiana for my niece's wedding. We left our home at 5:00 AM, and hit the Interstate. After a couple of hours, my husband got drowsy so I took the driver's seat. I drove on up the Interstate, listening to the quiet hum of the tires as we rolled along. Not much traffic. The sun was up, but not shining brightly overhead yet.

I turned off of the Interstate onto a road (one I had not traveled before) on the advice of MapQuest. It was GA Hwy 96 and it promised to take us across the state of Georgia into Columbus before we headed south down through Montgomery and Mobile on Interstates 85 and 65, across I-10 and finally onto I-12 into Louisiana.

My husband and daughter were asleep. I found myself watching as the straight, gray, and incessantly boring interstate road gave way into the lush, green gracefully rolling landscape of green trees and quiet roadside land. Everywhere I looked I saw farms with fields rolling for miles of with the beautiful greenery of peas, beans, squash and tomatoes. I saw fields of towering corn stalks, tasseled at the top and promising a good crop. I saw wide expanses of rolling pastures with goats, cows, and horses munching quietly and peacefully on their breakfasts as we drove swiftly past. We passed peach tree orchards with short stubby trees heavy with fruits, and pecan groves with tall, stately trees stretching high and proud above the ground.

I began praying as I drove. I thanked God for this beauty, and repented for taking so much for granted. I prayed blessings and prosperity for the farmers that have struggled so in the past few years of drought and seemed to be having a bumper crop this year. I prayed for the merchants who had small stores along this route, that they would survive our country's current economic crisis and continue to supply their community with goods and services and that their sales would support their own family. I thanked God for His goodness and the beauty He created, and for allowing me to experience it on my quiet ride.

A little farther along I passed an open area on my right, with large silver electrical lines running alongside the highway. As I drove I saw a thin cloud of fog sweep across the valley under the power lines and it took my breath. Surrounded by all this beauty, I wondered if that thin foggy cloud was in any way similar in appearance to the Spirit of God that walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day in The Garden of Eden. It floated just above the ground, wispy and light, sheer and beautiful in the morning light.

I don't know what Adam and Eve saw and experienced in their time with God, but I am thankful that I had my own time with my Heavenly Father that morning, just cruising along Hwy 96. It was amazing.