giant

To me, Nick is a giant. 

His presence may not always be known to others but he is huge. He carries with him a gracious spirit that he pours onto others selflessly. 

On a recent hike, I was in awe of Nick. He's a leader, he's strong, gentle, bold, quiet, and lovely. His love is hard for me to understand because there's no end to it and no limitations to who receives it. 

He is a giant. 

While we were on this hike I kept thinking about my best friend, the one I viewed as a giant. My thoughts sounded like this 

"What a man. Wow I love him. He's such a good protector. If we get chased by a bear, I'm convinced we'll make it out alive cause Nick is so agile and strong. I am so lucky. How did I get him? 

He's the best." 

On our way down, I hurried ahead to turn back to take a picture of Nick standing among these huge trees. I took the picture 

and it suddenly occurred to me who is bigger. 

My King. 

My God.

My Savior.

My Creator. 

My Jesus. 

I am forever in awe of my creator. 

Great Outdoors.

I've really been enjoying the outdoors lately. The past five summers, I have been a camp counselor which comes with the responsibility for several little lives. As a camp, we would hike weekly. The stress of watching ten kindergarten girls at once weighed heavily on me and sucked all the fun out of hiking for me. 

Don't get me wrong, I still don't love it. I'm terrified of all animals, and don't enjoy strenuous physical activity. That is basically what hiking is. Physical activity in a dense forest filled with animals. 

However, I do love the sun and I do love my friends. 

We recently went on one of my favorite hikes ever, pine creek. It's not hard and absolutely beautiful. We ate lunch on a rock that was in the middle of a raging river. 

So neat.

We're only a month in and it's already been an incredible summer. 

On these hikes, my heart has been filled with conversations that bring forth life. There's something about being in the wild. There's no distractions, no limits, and nothing to pay attention to other than the God above and the one you're with.