all beauty bears Your Name

"All beauty bears Your Name"
                                      ~Tyrone Wells

"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens."   Psalm 8:1

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."   Psalm 19:1

I love being outdoors in God's creation and experiencing the beauty of His creation.  I know that He is everywhere at all times, but I definitely feel closest to Him when I'm experiencing and interacting with nature.  I feel that God speaks so loud and clear to us through His creation.  He reveals to us more of who He is, and as we behold Him as He truly is we are led to a deeper knowledge and worship of Him.  We must remember, though, to worship the Creator rather than the created things.  As amazing as nature is, it is not an end in itself.  It must always lead us to the One who has created it. 

One of my favorite things to photograph is a tree from the base looking up.  Rarely do we catch this angle or perspective.  It is so great to just lie on your back, be still for a moment in this crazy/hectic world, and look up towards the heavens.  I love the image from this perspective of the trees reaching up with their branches toward the skies. 

And this is my absolute favorite photo in a really long time.  It doesn't come out the best here on the computer. (I didn't actually take this one since I'm in it obviously).  A friend of mine took it out in Colorado, and I love it so much.  I remember this day so clearly.  We were hiking a portion of Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was definitely the most challenging hike I've ever done.  We had already been hiking about 4 hours when this picture was taken.  I love how tiny I am in the photo. (I'm really small in the center near the bottom).  I feel like it gives a better perspective of the grandeur and majesty of the mountains.  At this point in the hike we had to climb up the rocks/boulders, and just over that ledge was a beautiful lake. I remember being blown away that day by how amazing the whole experience was.  I thought about how grand and beautiful and surreal it all was and how amazing the One who created it all is.  I remember thinking "if this is just a glimpse, a poor reflection, of how God really is, I can't even begin to imagine how it will be to see Him face to face".  I love the way the sun is streaming over the peak of the mountain and how it bathes the rock in sunshine.  It looks as if the heavens are opening up and the glory of God is pouring forth over all the earth....and then there's tiny, little, insignificant me who gets to take joy in just being there and soaking it all up.  Isn't this how life should be---how it was created to be?