Charlestown State Park, Charlestown, Indiana
Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?” “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves – we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.” But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.” Then Judah went up to him and said: “Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. . . . . It is here that Judah launches into a full recap of their encounters (both with Joseph and Jacob) since their first meeting with Joseph, including the agony of Jacob. “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers…” ~ Genesis 44:14-34 Once again, Judah steps up as the leader of the family, offering all of them as slaves. But Joseph doesn’t want all. Just Benjamin. Did you notice that Judah believes this is punishment by God for their treatment of Joseph? If you read the full account, you’ll see a picture of how devastated, distraught and repentant Judah is as he speaks on behalf of his brothers. Judah is genuinely sorry for the way he treated Joseph – I think not just in selling him off as a slave, but in all his thoughts, words and deeds against him. Because Joseph refuses to punish them all, Judah now beseeches Joseph’s grace and forgiveness, and offers himself as a substitute. Isn’t this a powerful picture of what God does for us today? There is absolutely nothing we can do, and no suffering we can inflict upon ourselves to warrant God’s forgiveness of us. Not by works. It is only by His Grace that we are saved.
It rained all night, so things are pretty wet this morning.
That’s our only neighbor . . .
Remember yesterday when I talked about the campground being empty? Well, it still is! After watching the news, we’re wondering if it has something to do with it being Derby Week? Oh, yes. Here in the Louisville, Kentucky area (just across the river from us), it’s an entire week-long thing. There are all kinds of activities scheduled – bed races, steamboat races, other horse races . . . The newscasters kept calling this coming Thursday, “Thurby”. And the Saturday race, the “Run for the Roses”. It’s a huge build up and consumed a good chunk of the local news. Maybe all the excitement keeps people from camping this week? We never saw anyone to ask.
Deciding I was well enough to venture out for a hike, we donned our boots and headed out to find Rose Island here within the Park boundaries.
There’s a sign at the entrance that warns you of the elevation change – 70 stories! – it takes to get you to the ruins of the Rose Island Amusement Park, which was devasted so badly by a flood in 1937, it was never reopened.
There wasn’t a lot left to see (and no roses 😉), but there were tons of information boards, so put on your reading glasses.
Those mark the flood level in 1937!
We encountered quite a few of them, so keep your eyes peeled.
Some are up high and others are barely above the ground.
How they got an aerial view, I’m not quite sure.
I didn’t ask Blaine to use his app. I should’ve.
Picture lighted signs and lamps on the pillars.
And don’t forget the 4,000 passenger steamboat sitting there!
Unimaginable!
We’re now en route to the pool.
There was a lot of debris along the water’s edge.
We didn’t much cotton to walking up that very steep, asphalted incline we came down, and since I was doing well, we opted for the ‘rugged’ trail back.
When you hear the word ‘rugged’ associated with hiking, what do you picture in your mind? Does it look like this?
Or this?
Or maybe this?
How about this?
It was a very interesting day today, but it was in the upper 70s and carried about 90% humidity, so it was imperative that showers be taken tonight. 😊 Being in the woods seemed to make it worse for some reason, but there were tons of wildflowers everywhere!
I hate it when my pictures don’t turn out the way I want.
Our eyes are such miraculous things!
And we usually take them for granted.
Their honeysuckle is beautiful, but it’s not like the kind we have back home in NE Ohio. I picked a few flowers and tasted it, but it had no taste. What? You’ve never tasted honeysuckle? Well, here’s what you do. You pull off the white flowers and there’s a green tip on the bottom. You use the tips of your front teeth to bite off the green tip, spit it out, then suck the nectar. Back home, this would fill your mouth with delectable sweetness! I would say that the bees already got to these, but there was too much for them to have gotten to all of it. I think this species just doesn’t taste sweet.
And then there was this, strange and unusual, never-before-seen phenomenon!
I’d first spotted it when we were driving in yesterday. What appeared to be round, orange Christmas ornaments dangling high in a few juniper trees. We saw some more while we were hiking today, but they were too high or too far off-trail to get to them. So after we finished our hike, I told Blaine I wanted to find one we could look at, and he indulged me by driving slowly around the Park. Whata guy!
We found one!
Here’s the description I found, and then the pictures we took! And it’s good we found one today, because it seems that maybe they open and close based on the rain. And since we had lots of rain last night, they were all spongy and gelatinous! Very, very cool!!
God is sooooo remarkable!