The Deep begins to stir

Sometime after 3rd Grade and before 7th Grade I think I began to " experience " God . In Sunday school and school ground chats God was always an Abstraction . MY parents spoke very little about God , they agreed that He must exist , and I believe they felt there as an after life . But Theology , bible discussion was not a fixture or topic of discussion in our home.

Understanding God for me began in the clear creeks and narrow valleys of the Oregon Coastal range . It began as a murmur , the taking of shape of individual trees in the first light of morning kind of way. And when I first saw the ocean the confirmation of God was sealed forever in my heart .

To be fair here I am not talking about the Christian Faith I embrace today . These first shadows and revelations where of God the creator , God the sculpture and painter and God the giver and taker of life .

During this period we were granted access to two different cabins on the Coast , Memory has failed me I cannot choose which came first , I believe it was the Cabin on Highway 26.

This cabin sat on the right hand side of the road a bare mile from the Gas station and restaurant at the Necanium Junction where Highway 53 corkscrewed into the Sunset Highway.

Next door and sharing the driveway to the Cabin was an abandoned School house. Across the Highway a large lava rock narrow the road .

The cabin was small at most two bedrooms , a primitive kitchen , no electricity . Bathroom facilities were out back .

Several hundred yards from the road the Necanicum river pushed toward the Ocean ..several miles down tream it was navigabile by Drift boat ..but the stretch behind the house was barren of boats.

The upper end of the hole and the lower end were quite shallow at the rivers normal flow . But the other side of the river was unreachable . That side was buttressed by a wall of Basalt pushed out of the earth . Steep , slick , black and menacing . Opposite the Basalt wall there was a gently sloping river bank , noving from the water with golf ball sized pebbles to soft sand at the outer margins of the " normal " creek flow . At high water and flood time this margin would spill out in to the field where the path from the House disected. There was a wide spot in the river there , we called these places Holes ..or fishing holes . The frequent floods of water from the storms of Spring and fall had gouged the softer earth away from the Basalt . it was deep and dark there , forbidding . If you waited you could watch the Salmon break out of this restful area and struggle upstream several inches of Salmon visible out of the water ..forcing themselves further up the river . and below the hole the same spectacle could be seen the Deep waters offer sanctuary for the Migrating Salmon . Along the banks carcasses of fish could be easily seen , and several of the fish struggling towards the place of their own birth could be seen decaying and moldering.

Death and life were here ..laid out in perfect order . Even at such an early age I new that if the river were an Orchestra there must be a Conductor , if the rich greens and water stained blacks were a painting there must be a painter .

I did not know who this Master musician , painter sculptor was . But I knew He was . and I knew some how some way that He must be eternal .

There was Mystery and discovery here . the house side of the creek , was very accessible and it gave up its clues easily during the months . BUt the Opposite side , those rock walls were too much of a challenge to investigate , there was no purchase here no place to lay a foot. Life had found a way in places , mosses , and occasional clumps of grass , clinging to the rock.

Sitting at the bank of the river , watching the seasons go by ..I knew with confidence from a very early age that This was His world and we were visitors ... Seems almost egotistical to make this confirmation about myself when I was so young ..but my conviction is unalterable . I did not know who this God was , I had no name for Him save God ...and I did not know that He provided a way for me to be with Him when I pass , I did not know about His plan of Salvation nor the curse of Sin . I Just knew there was a God , and I felt that by knowing more about His Creation I would come to know more about Him .

* Photo note , this is not the Necanicum river , it is the Duck river in TN , the rocks here are Limestone ...When we are in Oregon I Hope to photograph the Place I am describing .