The Mighty Mississippi...Standing by it and looking at it is amazing--such power, even 1,000 miles from its mouth! Some time ago Richal Smith gave me a book entitled, Rising Tide: The Great Missippi Flood Of 1927 And How It Changed America. It was a fascinating book that clearly explained how foolish it is to think that we can completely tame this great river. Yet we keep on thinking that we can tame just about anything--despite the contrary evidence of earthquakes, time, space and much more. This kind of thinking reminds me of Psalm 8 and the amazing declaration it contains,
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet.
So small yet so great--so insignificant in the creation yet so loved by the creator. How amazing!

Nancy and I visited the Mark Twain Museum and complex. We saw the fence Tom Sawyer fooled his friends into painting, for a price, and we saw this famous quotation, My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water. These words imply a realistic combination of humility and optimism, and remind me of the hope that we have. We may not be a genius, the smartest or the fastest or the most articulate, but if we offer what we have to God he will use it mightily!