I will never forget the first time my eyes beheld Yosemite valley.

Shortly after entering the gate you come to a scenic pullout for a look down at the valley. If you have never seen it, it is astonishing. You see is this enormous hole in the ground, the valley itself filled with magnificent green -- beautiful trees, meadows, streams and flowers, all surrounded by granite cliffs soaring thousands of feet above the valley floor. White waters of the Merced River flow down the middle of it all.

Again, the valley is surrounded by precipitous granite walls, among them is the enormous Half-Dome, rising over 8,000 feet above sea level and almost 5,000 feet above the valley floor. A few years later, my son and I hiked to the very top. I stretched out on my stomach to look over the edge of the cliff -- what a staggering sight! An unparalleled vista of nature's beauty!

You know -- if you are ever going to come to appreciate the presence of God in the beauty around you, you have to take the time to stop and be still. The scriptures themselves instruct us to "be still, and know that he is God."

You have to look at it! You have to listen to it! Develop an emotional sensitivity to the beauty of God's creation. Listen to the wind as the eagle's wing slices through it, or the smell of honeysuckle as you quietly stroll through the forest.

Ok, confession time: I am just not wired that way!

I confess I am a little like a dear friend who, when I took him to a beach in California said, "This place would look great if it weren't for all this water." That dear guy is in heaven now. I wonder if he has learned even yet.

Now, I have been blessed to have married an amazing woman. We have been together going on 41 years and she is no less amazing today than when we first met. In the wintertime, I see naked trees, barren and lonely. She sees silhouettes of beauty, shadows of lace against a setting sun.

As we drive through the mountains in North Georgia, when leaves are at their lusty brilliance, I see hills and valleys. She sees a myriad of countless colors, each of which she can identify. She notices a tiny flower by the path, I see a weed. She sees a brightly colored caterpillar; I see a fuzzy worm. Butterflies avoid me like the plague; she holds out her delicate hand and one comes and lights on her finger. In these things, this dear woman I married sees the invisible God.

I am a bit slow-witted where these wondrous things occur, but I am learning. My wife has taught me the value of seeing God in the world around me. Just to see him in the beauty of life is to touch the hem of his garment. The more one looks for God in the beauty of the firmament, the more one sees him and is nourished by him.

We're advised that Moses endured the pain of this world -- now get this: "because the saw in this world the One who is invisible."

And that is how we "endure" today, by faith we see God in every facet of our lives, every tree, every building, every cockroach, car or computer. "For the Christian, all ground is holy ground; every bush a burning bush."