WI Coulee Country
This last weekend I traveled with a friend on an annual
pilgrimage to what is known to fly-fisherman as “Coulee Country”. The western
part of the State of Wisconsin is geologically known as the “Driftless Area”
where the glaciers moved through during the last Ice-age and creating
incredible and beautiful, hilly topography.
Eskers and morrains rise 350 feet bordering Shangra La - like river
valleys. The pastoral scene is accented by bright yellow, purple, pink and blue
wild flowers, green forests of oak and maple beginning to turn shades of
orange, yellow and red. Down the middle meanders babbling brooks with names
like Chaffee Creek, Timber Coulee and the West Branch of the Kickapoo, named
after indigenous Native Americans. The
sun warms the air with silence broken only occasionally by the clip-clop of an
Amish cart or an eagle call as it soars above.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim
the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night
they display knowledge.” Psalm 19:1-2. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:20, “For
since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power
and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been
made, so that men are without excuse.”
This is the place I go to be refreshed and revived from the
noise and busyness of the city life. Here I find rest. The Psalmist David often
takes us to nature scenes. “As a deer pants for streams of (living)
water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living
God.”( Ps 42:1). Here is this river valley I seek Him. “My soul finds rest in God alone; my
salvation comes from him. He alone is my Rock and my salvation; he is my
fortress, I will never be shaken.” (Ps 63:1-2). God calls to us to rest in his presence, to
find peace and joy where he is strong in speaking his creative love for us
through nature.
I have included a couple of photos or my pilgrimage sites.
In your minds eye, place yourself there. Hear, see, smell and feel the
enwrapping beauty of God’s handy-work.
Perhaps you have a favorite place you go to be restored and to find
God? Perhaps it is a chair in the
silence of the pre-dawn hours, or it is in your imagination. God wants us to
find these places to find him. “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”
(James 4:8). The Psalmist David in Ps
16:11 tells us, “In his presence is fullness of joy, at his right hand
pleasures forevermore.”
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts.