Little Pine State Park, Waterville, Pennsylvania
Joseph’s blessing is five lengthy verses long. ‘Joseph the blessed’ – Joseph (son #11) is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, Who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb. Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. ~ Genesis 49:22-26 Remember, while these words are directed at Joseph, they’re really for his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, officially adopted by Jacob. Jacob blesses Joseph’s descendants with the promise of victory and prosperity. Joshua, Deborah and Samuel all came from the tribe of Ephraim, while Gideon and Jephthah came from Manasseh. At the time of Joshua’s land division, they were given the best land. And although they, like all the others, never totally ran off the Canaanites, they did subdue them into slavery. Within these blessings of Jacob, we find four wonderful names for God – the Mighty One, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, the Almighty. Such strong and caring names! He is Mighty – able to do anything and overcome any obstacle. He is a Shepherd – constantly looking out for his sheep (us), He is a Rock – a firm foundation that doesn’t move. He is THE Almighty (the Hebrew is El Shaddai, and it’s how God first introduced himself to Abraham in 17:1) – the all sufficient. Do you claim these Names of His for yourself?
Two for Manasseh, Joseph’s firstborn (they asked to be divided – long story) and one for Ephraim.
By the way, the boundaries for each tribe were set up when, “Joshua then cast lots for them in Shiloh, in the presence of the LORD, and there he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions.”
~ Joshua 18:10
As most of you know, and I mentioned a few days ago, we have no cell service here. No internet. No phones. Not just weak service. None. Nil. Nada. Zip. Zero. If you pick up a phone here, instead of the bars they usually show you in the upper left corner, you see the words, ‘No Service’. And it’s not just within the campground. It’s for miles around. Unless you get up high and there aren’t many trees around. All this will be important to remember later on in today’s post.
We were up and ready to hit the bike trail by 9:00am this morning. This trail is actually a total of 63 miles long, but we only traveled from mile 53 to 63 and back. That’s more than enough miles for us. I honestly don’t know how people can physically do more than 20-25 miles in a day. I think of those cross-country bikers I mentioned a while back, and I’m just amazed once more. By the way, I tried to find out how that 80-year-old man was/did in the Transamerica Race, but without his name, I was unable. : (
This was the most scenic bike ride we can remember. Mountains, streams, woods . . . and apparently there was a bear sighting just behind us because at least three couples told us about it when they caught up to us. Darn!
And that brings me to the reason you needed to remember the ‘No Service’ issue.
There was no service during our ride. We’re on a former train-track-turned-bike-trail, so it’s low in the mountain valley and runs alongside a large creek surrounded by mountains, at least for the portion we were on. We looked for service each time we stopped to take a picture.
A few miles in, we came upon a sign that I felt the need to read and then take a picture of:
And my phone pinged! A text message from our older sons’ wife containing pictures of our youngest grandson, Matthew!
A moment later, my phone rang and it was that same son, with important news from home. We’d been praying a lot and were a little apprehensive about the news, so we were thrilled to hear from him. He knew we were out of service, but felt he should give us a try anyway (the nudging of the Holy Spirit!). We talked for 19 minutes, and the second I hung up, my phone and Blaine’s both reverted to ‘No Service’! Now that was a God Moment of spectacular proportions, but it gets even better!
We continued our journey, Blaine checking his phone periodically for service. When we came back to the same location? No Service! God is so incredibly amazing! He even works with cell phones! This, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the God we worship and adore! The One Who’s into the little details of our lives. The One Who is not above using literally anything to assure us of His Presence.
You are the God Who performs miracles;
You display Your Power among the peoples! ~ Psalm 77:14
I thought it made for a cool picture!
and the making of the trail we’re on.
At the end of our journey, we loaded up the bikes and drove just a short distance to a local restaurant/inn called the Waterville Tavern, where we indulged in lupper. There’s brunch (between breakfast and lunch) and then there’s lupper, my word for a meal that falls between lunch and supper. 😊 Blaine ordered a Reuben and I had a Bear Paw (aka French dip). Both were amazingly tasty and loaded with ingredients.
Speaking of miracles, here’s a few more family pictures we received before we moved here:
Already!
Tomorrow we move a day early, but we don’t have to leave until about 1:00pm because it’s a short drive, so we’re thinking a kayak trip in the morning.