Our Western United States

While the western United States is a vast open area there is a lot to see.  There is Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Yellowstone, Big Horn Mountains, Hayden Valley, Old Faithful, Mud Volcano, Mammoth Hot Springs, Lower Geyser Basin, Fountain Paint Pots, Firehole River, Grand Tetons, Colter Bay, bison, bears, elk, and eagles.  Fun fact: the name Crazy Horse had nothing to do with the chief but rather it was his horse that was crazy.  The monument is a tribute to the spirit of the Native Americans as exhibited by Chief Crazy Horse.  I will just talk about the mountain ranges as it’s their formation that makes them interesting.

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, we are told, were caused by multiple tectonic plates sliding beneath the North American tectonic plate.  As this happened, the American Plate had nowhere to go but up.  You can clearly see this in the slanted lines of various rock layers in the mountains.  Who knows how long it took to happen but it obviously made a mess of the previous pristine landscape.  Imagine a mountain bubbling up in your front yard after you worked so hard to landscape it.

Mesas

The mesas were not specifically formed but rather the area between the mesas was carved out by winds and water eroding the softer rock between the mesas.  You can see that the tops of the mesas are at the same level and the lines of various rock layers are all horizontal and match up to other mesas.  Skeletal remains of various sea life high in the mesas attest to this watery erosion.  Of note is that mesas are typically wider than they are tall.  Again, we have the devastation of pristine prairies by ravaging water cutting huge ruts in them over time.

Teton Mountains

Lastly, there are the Tetons.  They’re just a mountain range within the Rockies, but unlike the Rockies, these mountains were mostly bald and did not have foothills like the Rockies or what we see in the Appalachia’s on the East Coast.  While they may have started by the same process as the Rockies, add to that volcanic activity, water erosion, as well as glaciers during the ice age depositing their debris as the ice melted, and you have the Tetons.  They are another case of God’s beautiful creation being destroyed by natural phenomena. 

The beauty of today

Looking past the devastation to pristine Western land masses, you can see the lovely Rocky Mountains with lush undergrowth, evergreen trees, pristine rivers, and lakes.  The allure of the mesas seemingly rising from the landscape is like any Western movie or book you have ever seen or read.  While the Tetons look like you could just go up to one and kick it, it’s their majesty that causes them to not just be called the Tetons, but the Grand Tetons.

This is all well and good if you are a mountain, but what about us?

Personal Devastation

Have you had devastating things happen to you in your life?  The loss of a job, a spouse, your health, or maybe some occurrences in your family or with your friends just eats you up when you think about it.

What did God do with those devastating things that occurred to His wonderful creation we call Earth?  He turned them into beauty.  Mountains aren’t called destructive, they are called majestic, peaceful, stately, spoken highly of in the Psalms.  Jesus often went to the mountains when He wanted to be alone with His heavenly Father.

Devastation for Others

So what of the devastations in our lives?  Can God turn those destructive things into majestic moments?

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says you can.  It says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, …who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Maybe some of those destructive things in our lives can be used by God to help others through what we have gone through.  Do you know someone who is going through a tough patch in their life; their marriage, their health, their family, their career?  I had a serious bicycle accident some time back.  The healing process was one of the darkest periods for me and my wife’s life.  A home physical therapist came to our door twice weekly.  She didn’t have me do much PT.  Instead, she went out of her way to answer our concerns and lead us in each step of the healing process.  She comforted us with exactly what we needed most.  She said it was because she had gone through a similar situation that she could help us.

Devastation for ourselves

How about Romans 5:3-5a which says “And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character;…

Maybe our personal devastation is not for someone else’s sake, but for our character growth.

So what of those personal devastations in our or others’ lives?  Can we look to the mountains for inspiration and let God help us turn our devastations into things of beauty?