Humbled

I like to pretend that I know what's up and I have things in control. Then I get humbled in the revelation that not only am I in not in charge, but the one who is really is pretty good at what He does. Actually, very good and nothing I can conjure really compares. Take for example this pass week:

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon:
I had a "Wow!" moment. Crater Lake truly inspires awe. I pulled into the first overlook on the north rim and was completely stunned by the view, about 1200 feet below me, of a 6 mile wide, perfectly blue lake lying in the middle of a caldera that formed 7,700 years ago when the summit of Mount Mazama collapsed. As you drive around the rim and stop at differnt overlooks, the walls of the caldera literally change colors before you as the sun moves across the sky. No wonder the Natives believed the lake to be sacred.

Redwoods National Park/Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, California
So I am standing next to this tree who's trunk is bigger than my living room and who's top is towering almost 300 feet overhead and I am again humbled. Even as humbling is the beginnings of this tree, at least 700 years old, if not older. This tree has withstood earthquakes, snowstorms, fires, and the encroachment of man. Europe was suffering through the Black Death in its infant stages and it was a mere adolescent when Columbus sailed west. I cannot recall ever being amazed, much less humbled, by a tree until now.