Followby Brian Waple
Last week I had the opportunity to drive across the country with an old friend. We were transporting some family heirlooms from my stepmother’s house in Virginia to Puyallup. It was 2,755 miles … 14 states … 5 days. I kept a log every day, and some of my entries are as follows:
Stopped in Danville, Illinois for the night … sat in the parking lot that evening and watched a lightning storm as it completely filled the sky.
Driving through the state of Iowa, I saw hundreds of cornfields covering wide rolling hills.
In South Dakota, we took some group selfies with Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln at Mt. Rushmore.
Passed several herds of pronghorn antelope and even saw Devil’s Tower in the distance before entering Wyoming.
Passing through Butte, Montana, we saw Our Lady of the Rockies, a 90-foot concrete statue of the Virgin Mary, nestled high up in the mountains atop the Continental Divide and dedicated by the people of Butte to women everywhere, especially mothers.
Crossed into Idaho and marveled at the expanse of Lake Coeur d’Alene.
It was as though a whole new world opened up for me and I was captivated by the sights, many of which I’ve never seen before.
It’s interesting that we are filled with wonder and awe at all the new things we see, but what about the things we see every day and take for granted, or don’t even take time to think about? Sure, we can sculpt heads out of a mountainside, but who created the internal forces that gave birth to those mountains? We can plant and harvest hundreds of acres of corn, but who created and orchestrates nature so that those corn seeds can take root and grow? We can stand in amazement at lightning filling an evening sky, but who created the vast sky in the first place for that light show to perform?
In the Bible we read: “In the beginning, God ….” Everything that follows those four words is truly a marvel. This trip made me think about how I view God and how I view the majesty of His creation. It made me question whether I take time to actually notice and be thankful, especially in this beautiful area of the country in which we live. I know that I don’t always appreciate God’s hand in what I see, and I should.
What about you? What have you seen recently in His creation that caused you to notice and give thanks? Perhaps we could take a few moments daily to give Him thanks for the beauty that surrounds us.
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As you know, Brian, my family recently returned from our first trip to Yellowstone National Park. We were blown away! Not literally — but could have been — you really get a sense for the amazing power of God when you’re sitting in the caldera of an active volcano, with steam vents blowing to the heavens and boiling mudpits bubbling all around! Amazing.
Not only that, but the natural wonders in the animal kingdom … we saw moose, a fox, bald eagles, and many more. Here is a photo of a huge bull bison that walked by the driver window of my RV so close I could have reached out and touched him: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmAKtUEAi-m/?taken-by=darklordlarry
(And no, I did NOT harass the buffalo!)
I guess what really blows me away is how incredibly, prolifically, ingeniously creative our God is. He obviously loves life! And when you look at creatures like the bison, you see not only magnificence, but also a bit of a sense of humor.
If the Yellowstone Supervolcano ever blows (unlikely in our lifetimes, fortunately), let’s try and remember that!