I have seen many, many beautiful places. I have not traveled extensively outside of the United States, but I have been to Mexico, Canada, Great Britain (briefly), and Africa. The wonders of the world are ready to be explored and experienced.

Among the great places I have seen are the vast Pacific Ocean, the majestic Flat Irons outside Boulder in the Rocky Mountains, the snow-capped peak of Mt. Hood in Oregon, Multnomah Falls – the highest falls in the western United States in the Columbia Gorge. I have also been dwarfed by the awesome El Capitan in Yosemite and stood on the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, Africa. I have hiked in the lush forests of Oregon and Washington and skied on the snowy expanse of Crested Butte in Colorado. I have ventured across the bridge at Royal Gorge, New Mexico and driven across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. I have seen the blue ice of a glacier crash into the sea in Alaska. All are beautiful.

But the most beautiful and most peaceful place I have experienced is a place called the Blue Hole on the Frio River in the hill country of Texas. It is located at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas. It is one of the sacred places on earth. This is the place where Eugene Peterson wrote The Message.

I attended at songwriters’ conference there in 2009. I felt burned-out and uncreative when I went. During my time there, I re-awakened my spirituality and refreshed that within me that had died away. As I stood at the shore of the Frio River and gazed into the crystalline, blue water, I was simply amazed that anything could look so beautiful. The blue color occurs when the rainwater filters through layers and layers of limestone. The Frio River is fed by a natural spring bubbling up from the earth through this limestone.

I was reminded that Jesus likened eternal life to a spring of water. His spring of water is never-ending, eternal. When I saw that naturally occurring blue water in Texas, I remembered what God had given me so long ago. My weekend at Laity Lodge was life-changing. And I consider the Blue Hole on the Frio River among the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

(Pictured: Blue Hole on the Frio River, Leakey, Texas.)