Yesterday was fantastic. Denver was great. We had a lot of fun exploring and spending time with Meredith but getting back on the road again after five days felt like a slow release of air after holding your breath. I'm all about just going with the flow but as one day stretched into five my restlessness also grew. All packed up, buckled in, we hit the road. This fantastic day was about to become the best day of the road trip.
We wove under and around huge mountains. Covered in snow and pine. The fourteeners boasting their height with icy peaks reached up as we wound around smaller sisters. Copper and Vale passed by our windows. Ski resorts now devoid of snow, the chair lifts hanging like abandoned amusement park rides. Their is no better word to describe the mountains than majestic. Huge. Overwhelming. As we neared the west side of Colorado we started our descent. Steering was the only thing necessary as we coasted down, steering and the occasional pump of the breaks. [Liz, neutral would have been sick] Seeing mountains, sitting up on their lofty peaks is beautiful. Even more spectacular for me is being in them. The Colorado River was surging and tumbling at our side as we plunged into the mountains. The sharp cliffs rising above our vehicle into the blue sky. The red walls like bricks. Perfectly places rectangles. Angular lines drawn with perfection, and yet there was nothing contrived about it. Wild precision.
Ben Harper's Blessed to Be a Witness beat it's way through the speakers. I am blessed to be a witness. Blessed to be in the middle of this creation-to witness the work of the master architect. Goose bumps covered my skin as The Power of the Gospel wove its way around my ears as I leaned forward and strained to see the top of the canyon.
It will make a weak man mighty.
It will make a mighty man fall.
It will fill your heart and hands or leave you with nothing at all.
It's the eyes for the blind and legs for the lame.
It is the love for hate and pride for shame.
Gospel on the water,
Gospel on the land.
The gospel in every woman,
And the gospel in every man.
Gospel in the garden,
Gospel in the trees.
The gospel that's inside of you,
Gospel inside of me.
That's the power of the gospel.
That's the power of the gospel.
That's the power of the mighty power.
That's the power of...
That's the power of the gospel.
In the hour of richness,
In the hour of need.
For all of creation comes from the gospel seed.
And you may leave tomorrow and you may leave today,
But you've got to have, got to have the gospel when you start out on your way.
That's the power of the gospel.
-Ben Harper
The power of the gospel was being shouted from the cold rock walls. The Word proclaimed in this rift of earth. The land continued to tell stories of salvation and might, grace and redemption, as we crossed the line separating Colorado and Utah.
You could say Utah is my new favorite state. I would drive it again in a heart beat. If you ever want to drive through-just give me a call. Utah is what a road trip should look like. Miles and miles of nothing. And when I say nothing, what I really mean is civilization. No lights. No billboards. No hotels or gas stations. Nothing. Nothing but beauty. It was incredible. It is so bland. And yet so fascinating, other worldly. You can see for miles and there is so much to see.
There are green shrubs-tiny little clumps. But it's mostly rock and sand. Stripes of green, white, red, yellow, purple, brown. Huge cliffs, peaks, towers. Cities of stone in the distance-skyscrapers stretching into the evening sky. They aren't made by human hands. They're pillars of rock stretching to the sky, singing praise. The hills are full of pockets, divots, cracks and fissures. Some shapes are square and others are spherical. Huge boulders balance on smaller ones. Grey mountains look like sleeping dinosaurs. The plateaus are ships, their pointed bows plowing through a sea of sand. The setting sun is playing through the clouds, bouncing off cliff faces and into caverns. The rays are streaming down through holes in dark clouds, bathing the red soil in puddles of light. The clouds color blue splotches on the mountains, drifting slowly across their peaks and craters. Every direction is indescribable. You just have to see it for yourself.
Is this God forsaken country?
Or God's country?
I lean towards the latter, the former influenced by the cultural norm.
I am on the verge of tears for almost two hours now because I am in such a state of awe. Rachel is probably getting sick of hearing, "Wow", "That's beautiful", "O my gosh" and the occasional screech of happiness. My eyes are just trying to take it all in. Undisturbed land stretching out for miles-stretching up and down and out.
Breathtaking to think that all this beauty lies here. As far as my eyes can carry me is raw beauty unpolluted by our hands. Just because. No other reason than to be enjoyed. No purpose but to make you feel small and insignificant and yet so blessed and loved at the same time. What kind of creator makes something this unbelievable to simply be enjoyed? And the thing that boggles my mind is that this is just one state. Just one stretch of road. There is an entire WORLD. It makes me feel naive and small.
I have not words.
I have not words to describe this tightening in my chest and the lump in my throat as I contemplate the wonders of this sphere spinning around the sun. The complexity and simplicity made of earth and sky. Rock and water. And the amazing thing is that there are people crawling over these places. Millions of climates, landscapes that make us silent. Millions of people who make us loud.
People, who are just as complex and beautiful as the planet they inhabit. We carry around pain and brokenness. There's something about the openness that seems more whole, unblemished. Simpler, more holy. Maybe that's why things feel so much more sacred in nature. The wholeness. We can forget about the brokenness and breathe. It felt like this when looking at the red walls of Zion Canyon-contrasted with the bright lights and billboard of Las Vegas. Being surrounded by creation feels right. It makes me feel more real. I feel small and maybe that's how it's supposed to be. It makes me feel whole. More connected. Peace and more in tune with it all. More in tune with this life.
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