love on the trail...

On Saturday, a friend and I went on a hike in the southern California coastal hills.  It was a beautiful sunny day with a brilliant blue sky.  The guidebook promised us a hike on "cool shady trails."  Well, we left the guidebook in the car and took instead one of the "suggested hikes" typed on a hand-out in the ranger's station.  The directions turned out to be quite confusing, not at all helpful, and we ended up not knowing where we were most of the time.  We decided to just hike along the trail as best we could figure it.  Needless to say, we never did find those cool shady trails...but we did find miles of hot unshaded sunny trails!!

To make a long story short, we ended up hiking for about 2 1/2 hours in the hills... mostly going uphill.  Very uphill.  Very, very uphill!  Oh, we had a good time...enjoying the flora-- the blue of sky (and ocean when we could see it again), green of bushes, bright bluish purple of giant thistle flowers, and yellow and orange of monkey flowers dotting the trail side-- and being cooled a bit by the ocean breezes.  We whined a bit when each hill that we thought was the final one was discovered to be NOT the final one...hiding a bigger one behind it!  We sweated, hiked, chatted, groaned, and laughed our way to the top of the ridge.  

At the base of one big hill, when we stopped a moment or two for a breather, I looked down at the trail and saw this:

I had to laugh, for these hearts tend to show up in the oddest places.  And each one reminds me of the Creator Who made them, and, I believe put them there just for me to discover and enjoy!  I laughed and told my friend I was sure God was reminding us that He was on the trail with us... and I think He was enjoying our hike!

It's nice to be reminded, especially when trudging along the difficult parts of life's trails, that you are loved-- by friends, by loved ones, by our amazing Father in heaven.