Day Last: Somewhere in Colorado

You guys will not understand how beautiful this place is. There isn’t much to describe. I am on my way to Jackson, WY after staying with the Brownson’s in Grand Junction. The route will be mostly back roads. Small, two lane roads that twists and turn up and down the mountains. Presently, I am on one of those roads, far up in the valley. Being August, you would think that it would be less green, but instead I see a dozen different shades of green. They remind me of Ireland a little. But this is nothing like Ireland, this is nothing like Germany or Scotland, or Italy, or Greece. This is the most beautiful place on the planet.

The United States is blessed by God. It has to be because only God could bestow this kind of magnificence. I don’t know if I can leave here, here being the States. I will have to leave CO, because I would die in a few days if I didn’t, but can I leave the States? Europe was amazing, there were so many things there that enthralled and inspired me, but it isn’t America. America the Beautiful has new meaning now.
When I was in Germany and eating with Michael and Ruth, I asked them why anyone from Europe would come to the States. We were in a little town called Lautenberg. It was one of those old time, 1500, German cities. It was beautiful, and the history, amazing. So why would someone that has a place like that in their back yard come to a place where the old buildings weren’t even conceived in the 1500s? He told me it was because of the open spaces, the mountains, and the land. I see now what he was talking about. They don’t have places like this in Europe. They don’t have miles and miles of nothing that you can drive through and get totally lost in yourself.

Yesterday I was driving from Lubbock, TX to Grand Junction. Along the way I passed miles of nothing. There were miles of open fields that flowed as far as the eye could see, a far cry from the cultivated fields of Europe. Only Scotland had open space like this and it wasn’t nearly as vast.

There is also a smell here. Take a deep breath and you can feel the thin air as it rushes into your nostrils. I think it is the sage brush. Sage has a unique smell and there is a lot around here. I miss this place. I miss the mountains and the solitude and the expanse. Will I be able to deal? Sure! Right now, I just want to put on my hiking shoes (which are in Seattle) and trek into the hillside. Get lost for a few days and discover something that maybe no one else has seen in hundreds of years. For me, God is in the high places. That sounds pagan but even now as I think about King Solomon and the temples he built on the high places, I can imagine why he did it. To me it isn’t because those places are sacred, but because I feel His presence more there than other places. Tired and thirsty after a hard hike to the top of anywhere, I sense God’s strength and hold over my life.

As the birds are the only sound I hear, the sage fills my senses and the sun pours over the trees, as the long shadows of the mountains draw into themselves, I thank God because he has revealed Himself in His creation. Thank You!

Jason