This morning my girl and I hit the road early.
We had a date with girlfriends to go huckleberry picking. We'd never been and we were over the moon excited. OK Maybe only I was over the moon as she wasn't too thrilled with having to wake up early.
We drove the 45 minutes over. My heart was heaps of happy to have my girl beside me, music loud and for much of the time, her phone in the cup holder and not in front of her face. If you are a mom to a teenager, you know the incredible joy this brings. Phones, the biggest road block to parenting, to building relationships, to life EVER!
The music, country. Thank you Jesus for her knowing from the get go "her" music wasn't going to fly with me today and not even trying to push it through. She put on something we'd both like and turned it up a little loud. I turned it up a little more and she looked at me like "whoa there, what's going on" And then it happened.
In the middle of the Whitman Wallow National Forest, we were in concert. She and I singing and playfully serenading one another. It really is too bad Ingrid Andress couldn't hear us singing back up. I'm not going to lie, we did pretty good!
My joke with my daughter has been for a while now "tell me again why God didn't make me a rock star or put me in a band! Just one reason" To which she always replies with "You want just one reason or all of them mom" and then we both crack up. It never gets old and we laugh every time!
Today, was a blessing for so many reasons. The ride over (and back) was simply wonderful. Side by side with my best girl controlling the music and the two of us singing and having fun. It really felt like to world pushed pause and nothing was wrong, in our car, in our world. It was just NICE.
Huckleberry picking was a fun adventure as we drove up and down and around looking for "the spot" my sweet girlfriend "knew", she knew where it was! Her mom laughing and acknowledging she hadn't a clue because she never pays attention. Some people would be upset by this. Me, not so much. I knew there was fun to be had ahead, and geography had little to do with any of it. I was right!
After a long time in the car, we finally found a place for picking huckleberries. As I'd never been at first I thought "this is going to take forever". However as we got in and got to picking, I told the girls I could do this all day. They said NO WAY. We picked for a bit and then we decided we'd like to find our way to the very top of the mountain so we could see out over the valley.
Once we arrived, we walked up and each us stood in awe. Complete and utter awe of the vastness of the valley, the views which stretched for miles, the quiet, the colors, the paintbrush of God, His wonder all over it.
My friend says to all of us, "isn't it awesome! God created all of this for us, for this very moment. He knew before we knew one another that each of us would be standing here in this spot, at time moment together taking it all in!" I smiled.
The girls looked at us and there was a pause. It is a bit overwhelming, I get it!
I stood there. I then said "What is most amazing is with all that is going on in our world, every single little thing going on and He planned out this moment and met us in it. That is awesome!"
I'm forever in awe of how God shows up, in the big pictures. In the pictures which seem silly, in the pictures which seem important. Always, always there, showing up ready to be captured.
I pause and I say THANK YOU JESUS. Thank you for being the creator of such beautiful incredible views. Thank you for moments shared. Thank you for showing up, day after day to be in the picture.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10