Though already a few hours into the morning, the forest is still seemingly cloaked in barely lightened dawn. A lone bird quietly sings the day's arrival as we make our way through the eerily silent trees. Muted yellows and puddles of red mixed with the green trees among the hills, autumn slipped in among the leaves. "BOOM!!!" thunders through the clouds, wave upon wave of drumming rolls through the air followed by a flash of bright light. Across the swinging bridge, over the creek, the heavens open, keeping their whispered promise of poured out buckets upon our heads. Every drop releases a fresh breath of forest air into our lungs as if God was in the air, in the rain, and he wants to infuse our bodies in baptism, close to his spirit. His waters of renewal run down our faces, soaking through straight to our souls, to join us with the bird singing his name. Out of the forest, our baptismal pool, we arise with a new glory, a new moment to cherrish for the eternal gift such moments are.
