As I write this first blog entry, I couldn’t have asked for any better timing to do it.... The last two days I have been soaking in the glory of the Rocky Mountains. Yesterday, Jen and I drove through a sand rock canyon next to a raging river filled with spring run-off from the surrounding mountains to get to Estes Park, Colorado - this is the beginning of Rocky Mountain National Park. We hadn’t planned on this day trip, but it just worked out for us to do it, and let me just say that the trip didn’t disappoint. As we entered the park, we immediately had mule deer to our right and within a mile after, we had a couple of elk cows lifting their heads to the sky, as it was rumbling and threatening lightning. The fear in their eyes was visible and their body language showed their stress as they ran away from the sound.
We headed up the road to the top of the mountain, driving through lightning, rain, hail, and eventually snow. As we neared the top at about 11,000 feet, we were driving through hair pin turns with drop-offs on either side of the road plummeting thousands of feet below. Meanwhile, the road crew had been sent out to plow off the four inches of slush that we were four-wheeling through in the Silverado. Upon reaching the top, we explored the visitor center and sat in the cafe looking at the vistas surrounding us, while eating a delightful bowl of chili vegetable soup and drinking a hot-cocoa lathered with whipping cream. This was our welcome to Colorado, and what a welcome it was.
Within two days of being surrounded by this stunning beauty and grandeur, I find myself unwinding and relaxing. The world of the past few years has seemingly spiraled into levels of depravity that I never thought even imaginable within our country, and the bad news we are bombarded with can become consuming.
But right now, all I am seeing is God’s handiwork - the snow covered mountain peaks, the animals roaming the countryside, rivers roaring at maximum capacity…. This is the evidence of God’s creation dating back to Genesis 1. I am reminded that his original plan was to walk and talk with us in a garden with no inhibitions, fears, worries, or separation in our relationship with him.
Romans 1:20 says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (NKJV) In this verse, God establishes that people are able to understand that the “invisible things” of God are “clearly seen” and “understood” by what has been made. We naturally understand his power and authority, but also remember that in Genesis God wanted a relationship with each of us - to know us intimately and to walk in love together.
It is a privilege for me to be able to write books and articles that demonstrate the very nature that we know points directly to God. There are so many ways that being out in nature helps to soothe and calm our souls, but it’s not just nature that is changing our attitudes and demeanors. It’s the call that God has placed on each of our individual hearts that we are seeing and hearing in the quiet moments we spend with him as we enter into his pristine creation, whether it be through hunting, fishing, camping , or backpacking into the mountains. We simply can’t help but feel the draw that God has for us when we are in his presence.
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