Nathan's Official Blog!

Hello friends. I'm pleased to announce that Nathan now has his own blog! We just got home from hiking a section of the Swamp Fox Trail today, and I thought it would be nice to have him share some of his thoughts on our outings. So, rather than me relaying his thoughts, or having him as a "guest blogger," I've helped him set up a site to share his thoughts directly with you while developing his writing skills, and building a library of personal memories.

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on my scoutmaster's scrapbooks from my old scouting days. I scanned each photo and created a music video spanning five years of my scouting experience. I was even able to make copies and share the video with a couple of my friends from the old days, and it is a treasure. I hope to help Nathan create something similar, but in addition to the photos, I believe the journal will add a whole new dimension to documenting these fleeting, but important, days to remember.

Please feel free to visit and comment on Nathan's site at: http://nathanscout.blogspot.com/ I'll encourage him to post often, and I'm sure he'll have plenty of adventures to share!

The Hope Diamond

A couple of years back, Nathan and I went to the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. We took in with awe the countless fossils that document the history of the world. We gazed at shark teeth, moon rocks and meteorites, all of which are memorable, but one item remains as set apart in our memory as it is in the museum; one of the world's most prized gem stones, the Hope Diamond.
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It truly is an inspiring wonder to behold. God created this stone ages ago and hid it in the earth where it waited until its time had come. In the 17th century, God revealed this treasure to man challenging him to work with skilfull hands to uncover its true value. It was first crudely cut into the shape of a triangle shortly after its discovery in India's Kollur mine. A Frenchman named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier obtained the stone around 1660 and it was later obtained by King Louis XIV and fashioned into a pendant of immeasureable value. During the French Revolution the stone was stolen and cut into two pieces. Now only 45 of the original 115 carats have survived history. Still, the value of the remaining gem was considerable, and thanks to the gifted hands of master jewelers such as Pierre Cartier, the value has been restored to a respectable, if not admittedly diminished, level of the original French Blue.

The very name "Hope Diamond" brings to mind another prized treasure that God has bestowed upon man. A diamond in the rough, this great nation, America, was revealed to our forefathers over two centuries ago. Master jewelers such as Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and later, Lincoln, set about cutting and setting this precious gem that would later become a prize set apart from all others. It was a long, painstaking and costly process to create this masterpiece, but God gave us skilfull stewards with a God-steadied hand to cut the facets that would add value to the stone. Sometime soon after the facets of emancipation and suffrage were cut, a shining, brilliant masterpiece emerged unrivaled in human history. This priceless jewel served to protect the freedom bestowed upon us by God alone.

Of late, the last 46 years or so, it has been the desire of many in this country for our masterpiece to undergo change. Aside from an overdue needed facet of civil rights, much of this change has been to the detriment of our own value. Our schools have traded prayers for guns, and our homes have traded families for single parents. We've traded babies for the convenience of choice, and exchanged our churches for entertainment pursuits. Our masterpiece has been abused and I wonder if we're not seeing the beginning of an even greater fall from grace as a nation. Still, my hope is in the Lord. My prayer is that God Himself will restore and reset our diamond, and that He will harden the stone so that it may never again be cut carelessly; that He will steady the hand of any jeweler entrusted with the care of such a treasure; and that if it is stolen and/or damaged, that He, our Hope and the only hope of the world, will hear from heaven and restore our land, America.

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"Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD." Psalm 31:24

The Ashley By Morn

Here's a little poem I wrote a little while back while sitting within sight of the Ashley River. I was inspired after reading Robert Burns's beautiful Sweet Afton, as well as breathing in deeply the cool November morning, low country air.

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The Ashley By Morn

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Gentle is your way by morn among thy sweetgrass green. Your banks are bathed by ringlets warm, so delicate and serene. And rising low above thy tide, a shroud of misty air. A cloak of grey doth all but hide the light of dawn so fair. The shadows that rise like secrets you keep holding night beyond its end...Are but arms of oak that arch and weep, dripping moss like tears of men. Across your reeds the stillness subsides as November breathes her last. And rising with thy sifting tides, your song of twilight has passed. A lingering mist bodes sweet farewell as it clings in final embrace. 'Til lifting as gently as the virgin's veil to reveal your shimmering face. So swiftly comes the heron white to grace among your reeds; To glide where once was only night and walk where waters recede. And there he waits 'til morning's end, a guardian of thy shores; Then leaves when first comes autumn's wind, the coming of night once more. Gentle is your way by morn, your promise doth remain; When shadows fade and light is born above your banks again.