I recently traveled to Colorado for a conference entitled The Externally Focused Church. Having never been to Colorado, I journeyed out early with a friend and stayed in a cabin in the mountains.
Now when it comes to nature, I am a Grand Canyon snob. Nothing can compare with the immense beauty of that big ol' hole in the ground. But I must confess, the Rockies came darned close.
Living in the big flat city in the Midwest, I often forget the power that God's creation has over me. But the song of the rushing creek, the wind caressing the new leaves of the Aspens, the aroma of pine and clean air - they each reminded me of God's gracious love toward us. The earth could have been stilted and functional - providing the basic sustenance needed for our survival. Yet God chose to do so much more. Offering vistas beyond our dreams, splendor so stirring as to evoke pain. A longing for something more, something just out of reach. The merest glimpse of eternity. A foretaste of that which is to come.
Encounters awakening within me a yearning, a hunger for the divine. Emotions expressed best in non-words. Yet still I try to capture that which already is beginning to slip through my grasp. Tendrils of memory remain...
The conference was good, too.
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