All Creation Is Shouting

We have been gone six days. I never saw a newspaper or watched TV, but I think awful things have happened in Haiti, and probably elsewhere, but until I get over living on West coast time, I don't know if I can bear to read about it. Braving mountain lions on deserted wilderness roads is nothing compared to what the world is suffering.

If you have been keeping up with my posts, you know that we attended my lovely neice, Renee's wedding in the gorgeous mountains of Arizona, not far from the Grand Canyon. Asherel, my dear daughter who would rather eat live rattlesnakes than be trussed in pantyhose and silky dresses was lovely in the clothes that I am sure she will never wear again. Despite my week of intensive training under strict instructions meticulously gleaned from the internet and followed precisely.... my feet still hurt in my high heels and I had to ditch them during the dancing. Much that could go wrong, did, but the wedding was still a celebration of sanctification of two lovely people vowing to endure the slings and arrows of life together before God.

We were staying in cabins on the edge of a national forest, high atop a deserted mountain where celestial stars go to vacation too, so there were billions of them. At 7500 feet above sea level, I quickly discovered there is no oxygen. There is enough to walk if you are ambling, but if you want to run
5 miles, you will require an oyxgen tank and some sort of modern motorized running shoes. I struggled up a very steep hill, with even the red whites of my eyes turning blue, and gasped finally upon the level deserted path of the wilderness. The literature in our cabin had promised fox, wild horses, elk, bears, mountain lions, and ATVs. I was out just as the sun rose, so it was utterly deserted. This is not smart, and you youngsters reading this blog remember do as I say, not as I do. You should never run alone on a deserted wilderness trail. However, the rising sun with its pink tendrils stroking the tops of sugar pine beckoned me, and I could not stop myself. I promised I would not run beyond the next hill... and then the next hill, and soon, the civilized world was a distant memory and I was surrounded by silence... and predators. I had grabbed a large stick to run with as everyone knows that 100 pound half century old shriveled ladies can defend themselves against animals twenty times their size with a stick.

You of course know this had to happen, what happened next. I heard a roar. A deafening roar. The kind of roar that makes hamsters spin wildly in their wheels. I screeched to a halt, with stick in "ready position" (tennis players know what I mean- knees bent, stick poised in front for either forehand or backhand, depending on which angle the animal attacks from.) I scanned the treetops all around me as I know mountain lions stalk their prey often from above where you would least expect death to come from. As the roar intensified, I knew I was a goner, but the strange thing was that I thought maybe it was worth it. For the half hour that I had been drawn deeper into the forest, I had gazed upon the warm colors of a rising sun settling over frosty pine branches reaching to a silent sky. Vistas of distant endless mountains opened before me, and the peaceful quiet of nature had been whispering God was near. Would it be worth it to live a life in fearful safety, or would it be better to stretch out where danger may lurk, but God's presence was so powerful?
Maybe not, I thought as I swirled to the crashing underbrush. At that moment it was upon me, and then raced by, the huge ATV with a smiling, waving driver. As he vanished down the mountain trail, I turned back towards home, listening to the echoing shouts of all creation.

Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.