Milestone in the Beauty of the Lord

Have you ever been somewhere where a picture just will not come anywhere close to capturing the beauty before your eyes?

Cinque Terre was one of those places for me. This beautiful portion of Italy is a cluster of five cities along the Mediterranean coastline. I've never seen water so blue, vegetation so green, or colors so vibrant. Not only is it gorgeous, but you get to hike between the cities. This was the milestone. Although only about 7 miles in distance, the hike consists of about four and a half to five hours of going up and down continual rocky paths. It was the longest hike I think I've ever done, and I would do it again in a heart beat. It was five hours of feeling like you are getting to see something that no one else has before and feel honored to be in the middle of the beauty the Lord has created.

The first two hikes were easy as they were paved. They were beautiful as they scaled the side of the cliff and looked out at the ocean. I don't think I appreciated the beauty of the whole place until the last two hikes, though. They were much more difficult for me. My choice of flip flops as shoes probably didn't help things, but the continual climbing up on rocky stairs wore on muscles that weren't used to working so hard. I am glad it was harder, though, because every time I got tired, I would stop and look out to the ocean. It was so worth it. I couldn't believe that I got to even look out to such beauty. Behind me were olive groves, lemon trees, or grape vineyards, and in front of me was the wide expanse of blue. Gary kept making us look out at the ocean with his polarized sunglasses so that we could see the different variations of color as the water changed in depth. It was incredible to see the magnificence of color.



This hike came after a time of reflecting for the summer project that has been here, and my experience went perfectly with one of the comments that was made about how beautiful cathedrals are all over Italy, yet no matter how beautiful, they have nothing on the grandeur of the Lord's creation.

This all reminds me of one of my favorite Psalms, so I will end with parts of it.

"O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens...

...When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?"
Psalm 8: 1,3,4