A blissful few hours ...

Ever since the middle of January I have wanted to drive out to the lakeshore and photograph a lighthouse encased with ice, as well as to see Lake Michigan in the winter. I hadn't been out to the lake during the winter months for a long time ~ not since 1972! Yesterday, I checked the weather reports and all was clear to take a drive out there for a little bit of adventure. Mr. Jones had been to a committee meeting for model railroading all morning and declined my invitation to come along. I decided to go to Muskegon because it's not a difficult drive, and there are TWO lighthouses there! I had taken a bunch of pictures of them about two years ago, but that was before I owned a digital camera, and I wasn't real happy with how they had turned out. I left home at 3:30 in the afternoon.

I actually made it to the lakeshore, exactly where I wanted to be ~ and I only had to stop one time to ask directions! I had two hours before sunset to take all the pictures I desired.

"... We cannot comprehend the greatness of God's power.
He directs the snow to fall on the earth ...
The stormy wind comes from its chamber
and the driving winds bring the cold.
God's breath sends the ice,
freezing wide expanses of water.
LISTEN! Stop and consider
the wonderful miracles of God!"
JOB 37:5b-10, 14

"God's breath brings the ice." WOW! Isn't that passage of Scripture so beautiful? Well, like I said, there are two lighthouses and they are called by very similar names. The taller one at the end of the pier is the South Breakwater Light. The smaller lighthouse is known as the Muskegon South Pier Light ~ it is actually on the west end of the south pier, on US Coast Guard private property.

I was wearing my winter hiking boots and really got a good workout, sometimes walking through knee-deep snow. It was so much fun! I dressed in lots of layers so that I could really enjoy the day. I determined not to walk anywhere foolish or dangerous, and actually I didn't think it would be possible to walk out on the pier at all. But I was wrong! I walked quite a distance out on the pier, surrounded by mounds of ice and snow. I made sure to stay right in the center and follow everyone else's footprints in the snow. I was very careful. It was a GREAT walk. I was amazed over and over again at the "awesome works of His hands."

"Who is the mother of the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?
For the water turns to ice as hard as a rock,
and the surface of the water freezes."
(God talking to Job)
JOB 38:29-30

"Have you visited the treasuries of the snow?" (God)
JOB 38:22

The sunset was dazzlingly spectacular! I loved every single minute of this marvelous two hours at the beach!

"You, O God, are my king from ages past,
bringing salvation to the earth ...
Both day and night belong to You;
You made the starlight and the sun.
You set the boundaries of the earth,
and you made both summer and winter."
PSALM 74:12, 16-17

Thank you, LORD, for every single snowflake, each shimmering icicle, the seagulls (!), the beach grass peaking through the drifts of snow ... the shadows, amazing cloud formations, and the wonderful array of colors of the sunset ... I stand amazed!