Red River Gorge (2)

Last weekend (has it already been a week?) several of my family members and I went out with several others to the Red River Gorge, the same place we went earlier this year. And, as before, it was beautiful! I had my doubts before we left, as most of the leaves near our house were brown and dull. But that was not the case at this place!

The sky was blue, the vistas were grand . . . 

. . . and the fall trees were golden, orange, and occasionally red.

What is so beautiful about the Red River Gorge area is the abundance of cliffs and rock formations. The trees are beautiful, but you'd never be able to see the tops of them without the cliffs . . .

. . . or without hiking the cliffs. It took work to get these photos. It took strenuous effort to get above all the trees in order to look down on them.

The same goes spiritually, doesn't it. It takes work, effort, sweat, and prayer to go from looking up . . .

. . . to looking down.

We're all still on this hike, all still making our way up this cliff. We must not forget the unspeakably gorgeous vista that awaits us . . . 

"One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).