if only I'd had my camera

I could kick myself! I guess I'll just have to try to paint the picture with words...

I was on my way to my parents house for Christmas - over the river and through the woods - or at least through Logan Canyon to Bear Lake. It was Friday at about noon - we'd had a fairly big snow storm on Thursday night, and the roads were still sort of scary, so I was driving slowly and wasn't paying much attention to the scenery. For those of you who are familiar with the canyon, there's an area between right-hand fork and the trailhead for the wind caves hike where the road is lined with deciduous trees that spread their branches over the road, there are huge evergreens all around, and the mountain side is very rocky. Right at that part, the sky opens up just enough to let the sun shine on the road. I looked around and couldn't believe how absolutely gorgeous the scene was. Each little outcrop in the rocky mountainside was piled with snow, just like the branches of the evergreens, and it was difficult to tell what part was rock and what was tree. The whole mountain had been flocked by the original Artist. The trees that were reaching over the road were also covered with snow, like a picture you'd see on a greeting card of a wintry, winding, tree-lined lane.

Further on, it was still pretty, but not so beautiful as that one area. There wasn't as much vegetation, so it was just the dark road, the white hills, and the occasional dark group of trees. Then, all of a sudden I could see the lake and I realized just how monotonous the view had been for the past half hour or so. I hadn't realized I was driving in a monochrome world. Even the sky was that whitish, not quite blue that it is in the middle of winter. When the lake came into view I felt like I was looking at one of those pictures where everything is in black and white except one element - the lake. It was a deep turquoise that just popped out of the surrounding bleakness.

How can anyone see that kind of beauty and not believe in God? It makes me think of the phrase from the primary song: "I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me."