Day 4 - Tuesday, April 21st

We started our day putting on our hiking boots, ready to take in some of the most extraordinary scenery in this verdant country – the English Cotswolds.  The trail isn’t well marked and there aren’t any sign posts; we take our cues from previous travelers who gave us vague landmarks like “left at the stump that looks like an owl and climb the fence where the yellow patch of flowers grow but if you’ve passed the tree that looks like a giraffe you’ve gone too far.”  (It’s not quite that bad, but it’s not real clear!)   Gorgeous fields of yellow flowers carpeted our trail and before we knew it, we were deposited into the sweet little village of Bourton-on-the-Water for some shopping and ice cream.  These were the landscapes that inspired the great English poets.

Couldn't have had a better, more beautiful day for a walk through the Cotswolds

Lance with the ladies in the fields of yellow

 

The cute town of Burton on the Water

 

A quick coach drive and a change of shoes and we were on the concrete of the mecca of academia, Oxford University.  Quite a contrast in a few short hours!  We toured New College in Oxford, where C.S. Lewis poured over books as a student and saw lampposts and gargoyles that perhaps inspired his world of Narnia.  Harry Potter fans enjoyed a moment to sit at the tables in the grand cafeteria made famous by the movie.  We listened to brilliant tour guides who, we detected, struggled to find meaning and purpose in all the head knowledge they have procured.   

Within the walls of Qxford University

One of the dining halls at Oxford

 

Watching the double decker busses as they zoom by us...we will ride one soon =)

 

We experienced so much today and all of it belongs to God.  His incredible creation stimulated us with vibrant colors and crisp air. And then Oxford – more knowledge in two blocks of books and classrooms than perhaps anywhere on planet earth.  And they are all God’s.  And though they are polar opposites – they were created for the same purpose:  Here it is:

Acts 17:24-28

 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us.

Incredible!  Everything that we experienced today from the glories of creation to knowledge that blows our minds are all very clear signposts to our Creator!  Imagine the tragedy of walking through that countryside without the least acknowledgment of His creativity.  Or perhaps, finding ourselves awed by all the smarty pants in Oxford and never being humbled by the depth of the wisdom of God.  May it never be.  All of life points us to our God. Seek Him. Find Him.  Enjoy Him. 

“We have two faults. We do not think God to be so great as He is, and we do
not think God can be so little as he can be. We err on both sides, and neither know His
height of glory nor His depth of grace.” Spurgeon

Senior - Tiffany Shroyer

Junior - Anthony Zeccardi

Junior - Christine Anderson