Two weeks into our “Great Adventure” as we have come to call our fall holiday south into the U.S., we walked among Giants today…Redwood Giants that is.  We are in a campground near Redcrest, California on the Avenue of Giants.  On this, the Lord’s Day, we walked in the shadow of those magnificent trees that are hundreds of years old.  I tried to take pictures, but I realized that these Giants must be experienced first hand, I could not capture their awesomeness in a simple picture.

As I stood in a grove surrounded by the Redwoods, there was a silence I had not experienced before.  The trees’ branches intertwined overhead blocking out sunlight as well as all noise from the road.  All I could think about as I stood in my smallness under their canopy was that I was walking on hallowed ground.

I whispered to my husband, “If only these trees could talk.”  What have they seen and experienced these hundreds of years?  The “Immortal Tree”, as locals have named it is close to 1000 years old and has survived a forest fire, a lightening strike, a logger’s axe and a flood and that is only its recorded history during THIS century.  What tales could it tell from a thousand years ago?

Greatness must be experienced.  I learned that today from these Redwood Giants.  Pictures, even words, do not do these trees justice.  There is a majestic quality to these sentinels.  They speak of the past, present and they will continue to speak through the ages.

A scripture came to mind, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.   Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.  Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4

The Redwoods spoke and I experienced His greatness today.