Today I went to a place just outside of town, on the edge of the desert, for a bit of silence and solitude. My friend and I left her flat at 6:30 AM and by 10:00 we were so hot, it was time to go home! We split up and just wandered the canyon separately, talking to God, reading, singing, journaling, listening to the silence and enjoying the cool desert breeze. I couldn’t hear bugs like I could at my retreat last weekend (which is probably one of my favorite sounds in the world) but I could hear silence. Absolute silence. Still, desert silence. I love the desert. It was wonderful.
I never EVER thought I would live in the desert. I am a mountain girl through and through. I mean, I like the beach and all but there is absolutely nothing like crisp, clean mountain air. Give me aspen leaves, a good hiking trail, and maybe some snow and I’m perfectly happy. So how, exactly, I ended up in the blazing hot desert, I’m not really sure. Well, in fact, I DO know and that’s because my life is not actually my own to direct but I would have never thought I would come to love the desert. And here I am today, in love with the desert. I always thought my brother was so strange because he thought the desert was captivating and I never understood it. “Nathan, there’s nothing there! It’s so ugly and boring!” I would say. He just wisely ignored me. One of the most fascinating things to me about the desert is what you cannot see. We look at a desert and see nothing. Empty, desolate, dry, lifeless. But God, in all His intelligence (as if I could even use such a humanly term to describe the Creator- after all, His intelligence created intelligence), created entire ecological systems that we cannot see. The desert is, in fact, a very detailed and unique environment. I don’t know how that works and I certainly don’t understand it all but I know that a lot is going on that we don’t see. I’m so amazed that parts of creation that we don’t even SEE are declaring the glory of God. Doing what they were created to do. Incredible. All the more reason why we should protect the environment as best we can…I'll save that soapbox for another day.
Here are a few photos from the wadi (meaning there used to be water there but now there isn’t- an interesting metaphor for this part of the world I think).
I never EVER thought I would live in the desert. I am a mountain girl through and through. I mean, I like the beach and all but there is absolutely nothing like crisp, clean mountain air. Give me aspen leaves, a good hiking trail, and maybe some snow and I’m perfectly happy. So how, exactly, I ended up in the blazing hot desert, I’m not really sure. Well, in fact, I DO know and that’s because my life is not actually my own to direct but I would have never thought I would come to love the desert. And here I am today, in love with the desert. I always thought my brother was so strange because he thought the desert was captivating and I never understood it. “Nathan, there’s nothing there! It’s so ugly and boring!” I would say. He just wisely ignored me. One of the most fascinating things to me about the desert is what you cannot see. We look at a desert and see nothing. Empty, desolate, dry, lifeless. But God, in all His intelligence (as if I could even use such a humanly term to describe the Creator- after all, His intelligence created intelligence), created entire ecological systems that we cannot see. The desert is, in fact, a very detailed and unique environment. I don’t know how that works and I certainly don’t understand it all but I know that a lot is going on that we don’t see. I’m so amazed that parts of creation that we don’t even SEE are declaring the glory of God. Doing what they were created to do. Incredible. All the more reason why we should protect the environment as best we can…I'll save that soapbox for another day.
Here are a few photos from the wadi (meaning there used to be water there but now there isn’t- an interesting metaphor for this part of the world I think).
No comments:
Post a Comment