A Glorious Reintroduction to the Isaiah 6:3 Tour

The land around the entrance to the park looks no different than the last 70 miles, the endless rolling grassland, still winter brown, of northern Arizona. About 15 miles in, however, fallen tree trunks litter the plain–petrified tree trunks, imported from God only knows where. Nearly all are broken into 3 to 8-foot sections, the breaks as clean as if made with a Divine chainsaw, or perhaps as if the trees petrified while upright and then fell over and shattered in segments. Actually the trees are thought to have washed in during a great flood…. Who knew?

Not a tree stands in the Petrified Forest National Park, one of the great and glorious mysteries of God’s creation. The park literature recites the standard “scientific- theory-presented-as-fact” that a few hundred million years ago the giant trees were growing near the equator, then moved north when the continents on this planet split apart, then washed to their current location in a flood, then got buried in silt, soaked in silica-laden ground water and petrified, then became exposed after eons of wind and erosion brought them to the surface. The hydraulic force of a flood powerful enough to move such a massive amount of enormous tree trunks can only be explained by the Genesis story.

The beauty of these petrified tree trunks is just beyond description. Likewise the colored layers of sediment exposed by erosion, both in the Park and the adjacent Painted Desert. All are a glorious reintroduction to the Isaiah 6:3 Tour: …the whole earth is full of His glory.

God was most gracious to give us a summer weather window to escape the Colorado winter after our final 7-month stint of caregiving, an exhausting, high stress, sleep-stealing ministry that we intend to spend the foreseeable future recuperating from. Already, in three days back on The Tour, my blood pressure is down 35 points.

Another timely aspect of God’s providence is the spring wildflower season in the California desert–Anzo Borrego SP, Joshua Tree NP, Mojave National Preserve, and Death Valley NP. We’re checking the desert wildflower reports online several times a day as we press westward at about 3 times our normal pace (90 miles per day for the first 21 months of the Isaiah Tour), trying to beat the unseasonal weather window slamming shut and not wanting to miss a day of the grandeur of the spring colors in the California desert.

It is so good to be back in the magnificent theater of God’s creation. Cruising down I-40, large sections of which are paved in black velvet, at a sedate 55 mph, everyone passes us without causing the slightest ripple in my pool of competitive juices. The Navajo Nation radio station plays oldies but goodies country music and only the tunes are understandable, which suits me fine. And we passed up a chance to get photographed with the famous girl in the flat bed Ford in Winslow, AZ. The girl who rides shotgun in my Ford is woman enough for me, has been for over 44 years now with no end in sight. I just don’t know how life could be any better this side of the river. Thank you, LORD.

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