the rock
 
Psalm 40:1 & 2
 
1 I waited patiently for the LORD ; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
 
Clarence comes into the cigar shop regularly and buys Point IV which he has to smoke outside because of the wife.  It's amazing how many customers have to take their cigars and pipes outside and how they don't complain about the fact.  In today's world, I guess it's to be expected.
 
Clarence just got back from a vacation in Colorado, or as he pronounces it, Cadarada.  He talked about trees growing out of rock.  "And they grow straight up.  Perfectly straight.  Not like here, where you have to help a tree grow straight or it'll grow any way it wants." 
 
I nodded.  "That's true."  Maryland soil.
 
"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't have seen it with my own eyes."
 
"And can you imagine how much we don't see with our naked eye?" I asked.
 
"Thank you." He pointed at me.  "I was thinkin' that out there too.  I was also thinkin' that I know now why Jesus went to the mountains to get away.  There's a peace up there you just can't explain."
 
Clarence has such a homespun faith.  You can tell he loves Jesus.  That he grows straight because he, like those trees, are rooted to a rock.  Whenever I see Clarence walk through the door, I can't help but smile.
 
grace,
 
lisa