Thursday, September 15, 2011

Lake Erie









My trip to Lake Erie over Memorial Weekend led to a trip down memory lane as well.  As a kid my family would vacation in the summer up on the shores of the lake....the closest thing to the ocean I ever saw until I was 13.  It is different than the ocean in a lot of way....for one there is no picking for shells.  The shores are lined with pebbles and rocks....and glass, pottery, bricks, and all kinds of other neat stuff that has been knocked about, worn away, until soft and smooth.  Although the extra coarse sand is anything but soft....it will however save you from paying for a pedicure and pumice your feet "au natural".    The first night was very hot, and the sunset was obscured by thunderstorms moving in over the water.  (The lighting show that night was great from the hotel window....can't imagine how awesome it would have been to photograph from the lake, but my camera ain't waterproof!!!)  The second day was cool, cloudy, and windy...the water the first night was calm and lapping...the next day it was very choppy with waves.  The great lake offered great variety!

Below is a selection of photos taken on the shores of the lake, and the dunes along Headlands State Park, including the old lighthouse.  Many a mariner appreciated that light I am sure, as the history of Lake Erie is fraught with shipwrecks.  Enjoy a couple nice reading selections I found to accompany all the photos!


Shorebird trying to stand against the wind






By C.H. Spurgeon:
The sea obediently respects its boundary, and though it be but a belt of sand, it does not overleap the limit. Mighty as it is—it hears the divine 'hitherto'; and when most raging with tempest—it respects the God's boundaries. But self-willed man defies heaven and oppresses earth, neither is there any end to this rebellious rage.

The sea, obedient to the moon, ebbs and flows with ceaseless regularity, and thus renders an active as well as a passive obedience; but man, restless beyond his sphere…
Cooling off on a hot evening

Every drop in the ocean, every beaded bubble, and every yeasty foam-flake, every shell and pebble, feel the power of God's law, and yield or move at once. O that our nature were but one thousandth part as much conformed to the will of God! We call the sea fickle and false—but how constant it is! Since our fathers' days, and the old time before them—the sea is where it was, beating on the same cliffs to the same tune; we know where to find it, it forsakes not its bed, and changes not in its ceaseless boom. But where is man—vain, fickle man?  We need more watching than the billowy sea, and are far more rebellious. Lord, rule us for Your own glory! Amen.

 
 
 

By J.C. Philpot (1867):

"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your  loving-kindness—according unto the multitude of  Your tender mercies blot out my transgressions."
    Psalm 51:1

What a sweet expression it is—and how it seems to convey to our mind that God's mercies do not fall 'drop by drop'—but are as innumerable . . ..
  as the sand upon the sea-shore;
  as the stars that stud the midnight sky;
  as the drops of rain that fill the clouds before
they discharge their copious showers upon the earth.

It is the multitude of His mercies that makes Him so merciful a God. He does not give but a drop or two of
mercy—that would soon be gone, like the rain which fell this morning under the hot sun. But His mercies
flow like a river! There is in Him . . .
  a multitude of mercies,
  for a multitude of sins,                           
  and a multitude of sinners!






" How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand..."  
Psalm 139:17-18


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