Friday I went on an adventure.  Pat (and hubby Tom) wanted to take me to Red Rock Canyon to see the maples.  They are unique in this canyon in Oklahoma because this is the only place that they are indigenous.   I had a great time.  You are riding along west of Oklahoma City for an hour and a half on flat land.  Then you turn south at Hinton and suddenly the ground falls down into a Canyon.  Totally unexpected.  And very beautiful.

Wagons came this way on the southern trail to Oregon--and the ruts of the wheels are impressed in the rocks where they came down into the canyon looking for water.  I couldn't help but thank God that I was born in 1938 instead of 1838.  Those women had it so hard.  There were so many people that died on their way west.  I can't even imagine the hardships that they faced.

I sit in my house and watch TV, go to the fridge and get ice, turn on the stove and fry chicken, and draw water from a tap.  I turn on the lights with a switch and sleep on a mattress at night.  I take a shower in hot water and drive my car to the store for milk.  We take all of this for granted, but much of the world even in this century can't even imagine these luxuries.

I thank God that he decided to put my soul in a body born in America.  In a Christian family.  In a little town.  And yes, in Oklahoma.  I've lived all over the US and Oklahoma is home.  The people here are for the most part good to each other.  And they still go to church, feed the poor, tithe their incomes and mow their lawns.  (Most of them)

I could have been born in a war torn place in the middle of Africa and be holding a dying, starving baby in my arms.  Wondering where our next meal will come from.  How I will get water.

"Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning."  James 1:17