Genesis 1:31
Good News Translation (GNT)
31 God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased.
Where I grew up the south-east trade winds blew continuously
for nine months of the year. They came in off the southern oceans and had a
constant chill in them. Often they howled through at gale force sweeping everything
clean and laying a magnificent white cloud covering over the rugged mountains
isolating us from the great desert stretching away to the north. Epidemics that
swept the continent were blown out to sea by this Cape Doctor, protecting the
fortunate Cape dwellers.
Magnificent sunsets over Table Mountain and Lion’s Head were
so common that most people never bothered to marvel at them. The mountains anchor
what the global explorer Sir Frances Drake called “The fairest cape in all the
world.” The wind carried the fading daylight far out into the Atlantic and left
a clear black sky. The brightest stars in the heavens bejeweled the sky and
became my constant friends.
In late winter and spring the foothills of these mountains are
festooned with an array of wildflowers that is unequalled anywhere else. Some
have claimed that there are more species of flowering plants within 50 miles of
where I grew up than in the rest of Africa combined. I wandered the hills and mountain
slopes and made an unending collection of these flowers that I pressed in a
contraption made of two boards and lots of newspaper stuck under the leg of my
bed. Finally I mounted them in scrapbooks that I pored over on days when I couldn’t
go out.
Brightly colored sun birds seemed to steal their radiance
from the flowers they lived on. My brother, friends and I often scared up a
family of guinea fowl under the bushes and trees and chased the scattering babies.
We never caught any. Other birds and small animals—pigeons, squirrels, mice, lizards,
snakes—were common sights in the hills. I kept a small zoo of these animals
Gerald Durrell style—a childhood close to nature
Thank You, Lord, for
sharing with us a tiny remnant of that great perfection You created the whole
world to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment