Post #3 (Day 2) The Isle of Skye

Hey everyone! Thanks for tuning in for the third installment of my trip to Scotland! Day 2 of the tour, last Saturday, was my favorite day of the trip, because we spent all day going to and from the Isle of Skye.

**Just a note, the pictures in this post look different because I chose to "write captions" for them instead of just typing the captions as text in the post! Sorry if it's annoying. You can always click on the pictures to make them bigger!

On Friday night before the tour started, I was having my devotional time, and I read this verse:

"Behold, these are but the outskirts of His ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?" Job 26:14

I knew that God had blessed me with the means to take this trip, and I knew that he had great things in store for me to see. I'm so thankful that he reminded me that no matter how grand or big the natural sights I saw were--they were still just a whisper of His ways. He is the author of creation, but even the beautiful creation we see is a shadow or a whisper of the glory that is to come! So all day long, whenever I saw something beautiful and breathtaking, it was like the Lord whispered to me, "There is so much more--this is just a whisper of my ways." It was an absolutely amazing day!

So, I think probably the best way to show you my favorite part of the day is through pictures. I took a LOT of pictures that day, so here we go!

Kyle of Lochalsh is the last town on the mainland before you get to the Isle of Skye. The words in Green are in Gaelic

Scotland is so beautiful! One author described it as "lines of melting blue." I think green works here, too!

One of the many Glens we visited

Loch Carron

At Loch Carron

Loch Carron--it was raining when we got there, and you can see more rain coming across the Loch. The good thing about Scotland is that you can never be surprised at how quickly the weather changes--you can see it coming for miles!

Don't know if you can see those misty blue shapes in the background, but that's the first glimpse you get of the Island

That land across the water is the Isle of Skye

Skye Bridge that connects Scotland with the Island

View from the Skye Bridge

Red Cuillin Hill-the tiny bump on top is a monument made by climbers. Apparently they bring a stone up with them and pile them up on top of the mountain. 

View from the Broadford Hotel where we stopped for lunch

Red Cuillin

Elgol is where we were headed--a town on the west coast of the Island

First views of the Black Cuillins. Our guide said we were extremely lucky to even see the mountains on that day. He said that each time he'd visited in the last week they were hidden by clouds. He said lucky, but I felt like it was a sweet gift from God!

Black Cuillin

Black Cuillin from across Loch Slapin--a salt water Loch

More Black Cuillin. A tiny bit of blue "skye" to the right! :)

See what I mean? You can see the rainstorm coming across the loch! Better get out your umbrellas!

Made it to Elgol beach. Remember the song I posted a few days ago? It talks about how the weather's always changing on the Isle of Skye. I think you'll see that that is 100% accurate. The next series of pictures on the Island were taken in the span of about 45 minutes. You can see how quickly the weather changes! It's really sunny here, but just wait!

Here comes the rain! You can see the clouds start to cover up the Cuillins. 

Wait, there are mountains there?

After a really, really heavy rainstorm we all piled back in the van and headed off the island. It was sad to leave, and I'm already ready to go back! It's such a beautiful place. The only think I kept thinking of was that the day would be made even more perfect by the appearance of a rainbow or two! 

Views leaving the island

Our next stop was Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich. More evidence of the crazy weather here...

Remember how I said that the day would have been made perfect by a rainbow? For those of you who don't know, I absolutely LOVE seeing rainbows--mainly because of this passage from Genesis:

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life." Genesis 9:13-15

Ever since I learned that "rainbows are God's promise," I've always loved looking for them. To me they are very tangible signs of God's love for us! Well, as we were driving back by Loch Ness to get to Inverness, you'll never believe what we saw---

God's Promise!

I'm still convinced that God used this day to absolutely show me how much he loves me. From this very real sign of His promise to the visibility of the mountains, to the words I read in Job, the entire day was beautiful, and I thank God for the chance to hear Him whisper to me through nature. This whisper seemed very much like a shout, though! 

Sorry it was a lot of pictures and not a lot of words, but hopefully now you see why I was so excited to go, and why I'm so excited to return whenever I get the chance. 

Love to you all!

Sarah