Being amazed today....by the creation AND the creation of men!

So once again Ken planned a trip to take some pictures.  We started off the day looking for a place that did not exist! The internet does not always provide accurate information, as we all know.  So we drove to a spot about 30 miles from home, looking for a covered bridge.  There was no bridge to be found.  Apparently the site is in Oregon not Illinois!  So we headed for another spot that Ken had selected.  The photo above is one of my favorites from today. I loved the random placement of this leaf on the bridge.  Such a beautiful part of God's creation.  It was a much better weather day today - the sun was shining, it was warm and breezy.  Instead of waiting in the car (which I did yesterday), I actually walked around the entire park we visited.

The place we visited was the I & M Canal Passage in what was once Aux Sable Illinois. This amazing man made canal was built entirely by hand from 1832 until it was completed in 1848.  Here is a bit of what I found on line about this canal....

The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. It ran 96 miles (154 km) from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago Portage and helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States, before the railroad era. It was opened in 1848, its function was largely replaced by the wider and shorter Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900 and it ceased transportation operations with the completion of the Illinois Waterway in 1933.

Did you see this?  This canal helped establish Chicago as the transportation HUB of the United States. And those 96 miles were all created by men.  This sign in the picture above, talked about the Irish immigrants who worked on the construction of this waterway.  Quite a big deal in the 1830's.  At the location that we visited today, the canal actually runs OVER another river!  They build an aqueduct that carried the canal over another flowing river.  

This is a picture from underneath the aqueduct.  Really very amazing.  How amazing and creative were the men that designed and then built this 96 mile canal.  How wonderful that this canal has been preserved so that we can still appreciate it today.  I recently blogged about the revelation that during the next year,The Holy Spirit will be releasing "Divine Intelligence".  You know, those new and innovative creative ideas that will bring about changes that will reveal the power and presence of the Jesus to the world.  I get so excited when I consider what is ahead.  I truly believe that right now, there are people out there with creative ideas that will change medicine, technology, travel.... really everything.  It is not hard to imagine how much things can change the world when you consider this blog....the internet....the World Wide Web.  Even just 30 years ago, this seemed impossible.  I am so thankful for the advances in technology that allow the Word of God to travel around the world with just a click of a send key.  And that increases my excitement as this Divine Intelligence begins to manifest.  I just can not wait!   

Jesus, thank you for the beauty of your creation that was all around me today!  Thank you for this amazing historical site that reminded me that you are in charge of divinely inspired ideas that change the world.  Holy Spirit, keep us all open to the new and seemingly impossible ideas that you give to us.  Thank you for your plans and destiny for all of us.  Amen