On our first week of walking we have traveled 476 miles. Fortunately one person recorded laps swum, because our route took us right across the north end of Lake Michigan.
We stop for the week in the middle of the beautiful Ocqueoc Falls State Forest. The falls are the largest in Michigan’s lower peninsula. It’s probably a little too cold to play in the falls, but if we wanted to everyone could . . . Ocqueoc Falls is the nation’s first fully accessible waterfall. The park was designed with universal accessibility principles that let people who use wheelchairs and walkers get right into the water.
The scripture we will hear in church this week is Luke 9:28-36. It tells the story of Jesus taking three of his disciples on a hike up a mountain where they saw a vision in glory and heard God speak. Most of us will probably never hear God’s voice speaking directly out of a cloud on a mountian. But we can listen for God’s voice in the sounds we hear around us as we walk and see God’s glory in the signs of Spring.
As we take stock of our first week we give thanks for the beauty of God’s creation around us and for our ability to move in it. We pray for people for whom moving is challenging and those for whom it’s harder than it used to be.
O God, whose voice is heard in the thunder of mighty waters and in the sighing of quiet winds, teach us to listen. Tune our ears and guide our steps that hearing you we may follow you as we walk through life as disciples of Jesus Christ in the breath of the Holy Spirit. Amen.