The Pocket Knife

We'd hiked nearly a third of the way up the mountain. I was starting to realize that either Table Rock had grown steeper since my ascent 20 years ago, or that my stamina was not what it used to be. I've come to the conclusion that it's amazing how much a mountain can grow in only 20 years... Anyway, the boy scouts and I were still on the first leg of the hike, and "some of us" were feeling a little winded, so we picked a spot by a huge boulder, took off our packs and enjoyed the morning air. My son, Nathan, was with me, and one of the other scouts, also named Nathan, was bursting at the seams with an energy supply from where I cannot imagine. Big Nathan, as we call him, decided to scale the boulder while we were taking in the scenery. He darted from one edge to the other, and at one point proclaimed that he had found a pocket knife at a well worn resting spot along the rock surface. He brought it down, and sure enough, some hiker had left the knife probably after cutting up an apple on a break. "Lucky find," we all thought and soon mounted up and went on our way toward the summit.

I hadn't really thought much more about that knife until one evening not long ago I caught a show on one of the science channels about the dinosaurs. The narrator, matter of factly, informed the viewer that these incredible creatures had evolved separate lines from one common cell in the depths of our great oceans. The concept that something had "created" the creature or even created the cell never even merited a single thought. No, scientists luckily found evidence of the dinosaur preserved in fossilized stone, and their resounding conclusion is that the giants appeared by adding random chance with random elements against the backdrop of billions of years. What an incredible faith they have!

Back to the knife. I can't help but wonder how many scientists would come to a similar conclusion upon finding Big Nathan's knife. Could not nature, given random chance, elements and time litter the earth with various steak knives, fishing knives, carving knives, etc.? Truth is, the very idea of nature producing such objects without intelligent direction is ludicrous by any reasonable standard. Nathan knew what he'd found; he had found a knife. There is no doubt, zero, none, that it was lost by another hiker. No reasonable person would seriously argue that this simple, inanimate object made by the hand of man could ever be produced by random chance, elements and time. The knife cannot speak, still through its design, it proclaims the existence of its creator. How much more can that be said of the astonishing complexity of the living creature? Are we to believe that by chance that which the mind of man cannot even conceive and hand of man cannot duplicate, simply came to be? Simply said, this cannot be.

All of creation proclaims the existence of its Creator. The creation is His, the design is His, we are His, and of this there is no doubt!

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

Legends of the Fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Crisp nights, red leaves, corn stalks browning in the field all inspire the warmest feelings inside me. Just thinking about it makes me want to go to Cracker Barrel and have an apple dumpling by the fire. Fall comes a little later in the low country, so we've traveled up to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee twice already this month just to shop for apples and sample the leaves. The first trip was up to Hendersonville where we stopped at a farm store called GrandDad's Apple Farm. They had the BEST mulled cider and fried apple pies. Nathan enjoyed me pulling him around the pumpkins in one of the store's wagons; even our dog, Nienna, enjoyed the change of scenery.

On the way back down, we stopped in Edneyville, NC. My ancestors, the Lyda's, on my Mom's side founded that little mountain apple farming community back in the 1800's. The old stone church, St Paul's Episcopal, still stands serenely in the valley. Across the road is a small cemetery surrounded by apple orchards. I took Nathan there to see where his great-great grandfather, Mark Lafayette Lyda and great-great grandmother, Minerva Lyda are buried. A few stones down the row we came upon Mark's father's, Isaac Monroe Lyda, white stone marker. It identifies him as a Confederate soldier who fought with the 25th NC Infantry in the Civil War. Within sight of Isaac Monroe's stone is an obelisk marking the graves of Nathan's great-great-great-great grandfather and grandmother, Jacob and Annie Lyda. On the stone is a memorial to his stature at the time of his death in 1860; the words "The Pioneer" are nobly engraved under his name for posterity to know of his significance to the community. I only learned about that line of my family as an adult, so it was a wonderful thing to be able to share with pride this heritage with Nathan. We also stopped by there this past weekend with Kristin, so hopefully a tradition of honoring our heritage in this way has been sewn anew for the next generation.

This past Monday, we drove up to Nashville for a couple of days. I've been slowly plugging away on an instrumental guitar project featuring some of my favorite hymns. I'm working with an amazing Nashville session bassist, Dave Pomeroy, and we are recording the project in his studio. It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally starting to get to the post-recording phase, at least where I'm concerned. I may call in some musician help on a couple of songs, and there's the mixing and mastering stage, not to mention the duplication stage that's still a little beyond the horizon, but I can say that progress has been made enough to where I'm starting to get a little excited. I'll post more on it as it finally takes shape, but any prayers out there for the project are greatly desired and appreciated!

In other music happenings, I was blessed to play the prelude music for my lovely cousin, Kristin's and her new husband, Russell's, wedding at the beautiful Second Presbyterian in downtown Charleston. Congratulations to you both and a special thanks to Pam and Bubba for asking me to be a part of your special day! Thanks also to my daughter, Kristin, for setting up the two Starbucks in-store events...I really enjoyed it!

On the way back down from Nashville, we spent the night in Gatlinburg and retraced our steps through Edneyville again as I mentioned before. Kristin made the trip too, so except for Marcus, we were all together. Marc's over at our place today watching Shrek and listening to music when he's not devising plans to raid the pantry! I try to not take for granted any of these precious times when we can all be together whether we're driving through the mountains or just sitting around watching SpongeBob on a rainy afternoon. I know that if I'm not careful, I can work and plan for happiness my whole life and miss the gift that I have right in front of me. One of the things I like about blogging is that it gives me a moment to pause and thank the Lord for all I've been given.

Enjoy the season as we enter soon the formal time of Thanksgiving. I'll have to let Nathan tell you about our October camping trip soon. I'll leave most of it to him, but as a preview I'll share that he earned his first merit badge!