On a Rocky Place

Monday we took a boat trip with our friends from Bellingham on board the Carol Lee…named after their daughter who is named after the Carol Lee in my life. It is a 40 foot, canoe-stern, ocean-going sailing yacht. We left Squalicum Harbor about 11:30 and arrived at Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island about 1:30 for lunch (on board). We then went ashore in the dingy and hiked a mile up the island to Duck Lake on an old logging road/trail, taking pictures of moss, wild flowers, trees, and rocks on the way. The Lilly pads were blooming on the lake. We returned via another steeper, log skid path (these roads are all grown up now, having been logged probably in the early 1900’s. The land is now part of the State of Washington’s Department of Natural Resources. They are a treasure and the hike is beautiful.) to the interior part of Eagle Harbor…looking at giraffe heads in driftwood, finding domestic flowers gone wild from old homesteads, and snapping a few shots of the Carol Lee at anchor.

It was here that we found these plants blooming on a rock face. They were probably the most beautiful on the entire walk. I was struck by how a very hard surface can yield enough nutrients and base for something really beautiful. How like our lives…we may find ourselves in very hard places, mounted, so-to-speak, on a barren, rocky place, and yet God can make us bloom beautifully. Our circumstances can be a backdrop for greater beauty, and even if we are in a hard place, God can still use us to make life beautiful for those around us. Over time, our root system will even soften up the rocky place, and make it more useful for other things around us.
2 Cor. 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.