A WORD FOR TODAY, October 14, 2024
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, October 14, 2024
“The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his room, like a strong man rejoicing to run his course. His going out is from the end of the heavens, his circuit to its ends. There is nothing hidden from its heat.” Psalm 19:1-6, WEB
My husband and I spent twelve days on a road trip to Wyoming. We spent time in Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and a Christian retreat center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We traveled 3650 miles through six states and saw so much of God’s beautiful creation. We watched sunrises and sunsets, saw mountains, hills, and plains. We saw streams, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls. We experienced the rush of spotting animals of every shape and size, from bull moose to chipmunks, bald eagles and pronghorn sheep. Some were in the wilds of the parks, and some were in fields beside the road during our trip. We were fascinated by the hydrothermal areas of geysers, mud pots, hot springs, and fumaroles. The landscape was dotted with many types of trees, some coniferous that will remain green through the winter and others deciduous that were ablaze in the changing colors of autumn. We even found wildflowers and cactus along some of our hikes.
We also saw evidence of ancient volcanos and earthquakes, as well the ravages of fire, both natural and those caused by human error. We saw the natural course of life on earth, life and death, beauty and ugly. Drought has wreaked havoc on some areas of the parks; the hot springs were dry and most of my photos have at least one tree that is dying. We talked to one woman who was really disappointed with one area of the park. “It was too dry.” It was not what she expected, but these areas are constantly changing from the weather and the geologic activity underneath the ground.
We had our disappointments during the trip. We did not find some animals we’d hoped to see, and many of my pictures are a bit fuzzy and unfocused. Major wildfires around the parks filled the air with smoke, making the valleys hazy. The Teton range was nearly as elusive as some of the animals, hidden behind the lingering smoke. We struggled with the smell of smoke and watery eyes.
Still, we were constantly awed by everything we saw, even what some might call ugly. I commented to my husband early in the trip that I wished someone would go through the forest to remove the dying trees so that I could get that “perfect shot.” Yet, I learned during a tour that Yellowstone National Park purposely lets nature take its course. In the fire burnt regions, many trees just stand bare on the hillside, while others have fallen and lie on the ground. In places outside the park, trees are harvested to use, but the National Park lets them return to the earth. Yellowstone is an active super volcano, the top soil is only about eight inches deep.
It is amazing to think that those trees can even grow in such a landscape. That eight inches of soil is there because over history forests have burned, and the trees have decomposed into soil, giving a place for more grasses, flowers, and trees to grow. New growth can be seen where trees are still returning to the earth. It takes at least a hundred years for a tree to become soil. In the meantime, they provide a place for bugs to live, which are used as food for small creatures, which are food for larger creatures. Even in the “ugly” parts of the parks we saw the beauty of God’s creation. God has made a world that is able to renew itself in incredible ways.
We saw so much during our twelve-day trip, praising God every day for the world He gave us. We were sometimes reminded about our failure to be good stewards of this world, but also God’s grace to care for us anyway, teaching us with every surprise that there is good amidst the bad, hope in death, and peace in the chaos of life. Everything under the sun was created by God and moves according to His will and purpose. Everything under the sun glorifies Him and points to the reality of Him. When you doubt that God exists, look at the world. Don’t just look at the beautiful things but see the beauty in the way God is able to use even the ugly to teach about life to His people. Even fire has a purpose, and though we will never see that tree return completely to the earth, we know that it will become the soil that will feed a new generation in a hundred years, trees that will support new life for those who follow us in life in God’s great big beautiful creation.
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