We had the opportunity to take a vacation at beginning of the month. We made a commitment to each other before our wedding that we would be focused on making memories with each other. I have always wanted to go on a camping trip out west and Emma told me about her trip to Utah with her family the summer before we started dating and I wanted to do something similar. So we headed out west and did some hiking and camping in four national parks.

While we were out there, we were constantly amazed at what God did to create this unique Terrain. There were a few things this left us with as we headed home:
1. Necessity of rest
2. ‎‎Clashing worldview explanations of beautiful landscapes
3. Uniquely made works to uniquely glorify God

NECESSITY OF REST:

In the busyness of life it is far too easy for us to skip a sabbath and at times get out of alignment. As Christ followers we see God model the importance of a Sabbath for us from the first chapter of Genesis at the end of the creation account through Jesus’ life where He would recluse from crowds to draw near to God the Father and focus on that relationship.

In life it can be difficult to balance the various roles that we play between work and family life, but being on vacation was a great opportunity for us to just focus on the family and making memories.

I am not trying to biblically justify the fun that we had on vacation, but rather want to make a argument based on the refreshment that I feel having spent time away from work, enjoying my family and God’s creation in Utah and Arizona that we need to spend time focusing on those relationships that we hold most dear to us and to rest.

A vacation is different from a sabbath, but the level of refreshment and rejuvenation that one experiences relationally in an area of their life from partaking in one of these activities can be applied to the necessity of both.

God commands us to rest and take a sabbath…it is important that we regularly find time for this and truly just focus on our relationship with Him. There are absolutely seasons of our life when this is more difficult, but it is worth fighting for and there will always be more work to do, but the time that we do not spend focusing on our relationships with our family and our Father we will not get back.

WORLDVIEW EXPLANATION OF NATURAL MONUMENTS

As we went to Colorado National Monument, Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Grand Canyon North Rim National Park, and Antelope Canyon we were told my tour guides, park rangers, and signs that the formation of these landscapes that made them worthy for the US National Parks Department to make these sites special was because of erosion that took place over hundreds of millions of years.

As we stood on the edge of these great national monuments of God’s glory, our hearts were turned to worship. Some verses came to mind:

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭1:20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭19:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭7:4, 11-12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.

And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭7:17-20, 24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

From a biblical worldview I believe that these great natural monuments are not hundreds of millions of years old but that they were shaped by the great flood of Genesis 7. God set out to blot our every living thing from among the earth except what was on the ark and all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. It rained for 40 days and nights and the earth was flooded above the mountains for 150 days. I believe that this event is what created these depths and unique monuments that scientists try to explain with theories of the earth being hundreds of millions of years old to get the same effect that the great flood had in reshaping the earth’s landscape.

The architects of great building and monuments are remembered and proudly displayed because the completed project is a testimony of their greatness. Any How I Met Your Mother fan can think of Ted Mosby giving a tour of New York City sharing about the different architectural styles and designers of the structures accordingly. The excitement you would see from Ted doing this was Emma and I at the base of these monuments giving God glory as the masterful architect.

How Great is our God! For He alone is worthy of our praise. He is full of majesty. He is the Alpha and Omega, from everlasting to everlasting. He spoke and created everything from nothing and rightfully receives glory as He exercises sovereign rule over His creation.

UNIQUELY MADE FOR A UNIQUE PURPOSE

Never in my life have I seen anything like the arches in Arches National Park; the Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon; the depth, breadth, and colors of the Grand Canyon; or the skinny Navajo Sandstone slot canyon known as Antelope Canyon. Part of the glory that they bring to God is in their individuality and that there is no other exactly like them.

The same way that God has fashioned these different natural monuments to bring Him glory in their unique design, I believe He does the same thing with people. All of the different hilltop and valley moments where God grows us as we endure suffering and persevere and in the process our story becomes more and more of God’s story but unique because of the different experiences that we have in life. This is a beautiful picture of the church and when broken people come together in fellowship that they get to share the many ways that God has worked in their lives to bring them to where He has them at that point.

I cannot comprehend what this will be like in anticipation of experiencing worship in Heaven like Revelation 7:9-10 describes with those from every tongue, tribe, nation, and people group declaring “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the lamb!”.

It gave me new wind in my sails as God continues to write our story with the different ups and downs that will point us back to Him as our architect through it all.