Sometimes God makes It easy for us and puts a big rock with a Bible verse on It, right In front of you. Seriously.

This was a glory-filled day. The weather was perfect, clear with those ‘Microsoft’ puffy clouds In the sky and we drove to Newcastle by the sea. One one side the sea, sparkling away, and on the other the Mourne Mountains, the highest mountains In N. Ireland.

After coffee and Nutella crepes (mmm—hmmmm), we headed out to the Tollywood Forest, one of the only forests In N. Ireland. Did you know that Ireland has very few trees, and very few forests? Thousands of years ago the trees were cleared for pastureland and now only 1% of the forestland remains. We walked through some of that 1% and I am trying to find the right words so I don’t waste the beauty.

The walkways were wide dirt roads that wound through the trees and down to the river below, headed through cool pine groves that dripped remnant raindrops on us from their needles as we walked by. Again I felt as though I had been let out from a confined space and set free. I had to stop myself from walking ahead of everyone else because my energy was boundless. Stone bridges built In the late 1700’s still stand over the Shimna River—Imagine women In Victorian dresses swishing across the bridges, horses cantering along as they brought carriages to the estate house that used to sit at the center of the forest.

But for me, It was just pure gift. We walked and chatted and listened to the birds, watched the shadows of fish slip along the bottom of river pools that the sun illuminated.

And then, right at the end of the walk—this magnificent erratic—a stone placed In an unusual spot, most likely by a glacier from the Ice Age, with a reference to John 3:1 “All things were made through him, and without him was not made anything that was made.” The carving In the rock said this: “STOP. Look around and praise Him who make It all.”

Guess I can drop the mike and just let that sit there, right?