At the River

Yesterday I read some of Tusdays with Morrie, it's about an old man who is dying of ALS and the lessons he teaches his friend. The guy who is writing the story (his friend) compared himself waiting on a busy street and reading tabloids with Morrie waiting in his study staring out his window at nature. Here's a quote:

"People scooped up these tabloids, devoured their gossip, and on previous trips to England, I had always done the same. But now, for some reason, I found myself thinking about Morrie whenever I read anything silly or mindless. I kept picturing him there, in the house with the Japanese maple and the hardwood floors, counting his breath, squeezing out every moment with his loved ones, while I spent many hours on things that meant absolutely nothing to me personally."

I read this and thought about what's important and how I waste my time. I spend so much of it running around going places the way Mitch Albom (the writer) did when my heart longs to just stop and look around and relish in God's creation. Today I went to the river and I found my favorite spot. I stood there staring at this rock amazed at how big it was and how long it's been there. I don't know if you've ever felt that way, you get out and just wonder how long things have been there. The world was here thousands of years before you and will stay thousands of years after. It is one constant in the crazy mess of the rest of my life. Maybe that's what I'm supposed to see from it, nature is constant just like it's creator. I think that's what I long for, something constant, something unwavering because everything else changes. I want something to stay the same and I want to stay there with it and stay the same with it. I wanted to stand there in the same place for thousands of years watching this rock's beginning, watching it grow. This is probably me running away from change but the trip was refreshing all the same. I just have to remember that God will stay constant, He does not change and I can be comforted in that.