Two weeks ago we went to Mesa Verde National Park, the place in Southwestern Colorado where there is a community of Native American Pueblo dwellings. It is a fascinating place and the ingenuity and determination of those ancient people was amazing. Strangely though, I think that my favorite part of my experience in the Park was the 45 minute drive to and from the entrance to the pueblos.
After beginning the ride innocently enough, we were quickly carried from switchback to switchback going ever higher and higher. It is a trip that only the brave can completely enjoy as you are treated to one sweeping vista after another. (I had to close my eyes occasionally.) Soon though we came to the highest point in the Park, aptly named Park Point. We stopped the car, got out , and walked a short distance to the very top. From there we could see what seemed liked forever in all directions. After reading the sign posted there, we realized that from that spot we could turn in any direction and gaze upon a different state. Turn to the South and we could see New Mexico; to the North and East, Colorado; to the West, Utah; and to the Southwest, Arizona. It was awe inspiring! Spaces in the West always seem vast but this took it to a new level.
The weather was perfect that day. The crisp mountain air was neither too hot nor too cold to enjoy the views. The crystal clear sky and the blazing sunshine made the snow covered mountains seem almost fake. How could anything that glimmers so brightly in the distance be real, we wondered.
After experiencing those amazing minutes on the mountaintop we were primed to see the pueblos. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions we were only able to look at them from a viewpoint across the valley but even from there they were extremely impressive. I hadn't realized that there were so very many of these stone villages tucked into the side of a mountain. It seemed as if those homes had become a part of mountain and amazingly they are still there a thousand years after they were built!
So many questions zoomed through my brain....Why had they chosen to live their lives with their families so very high above the valley floor. Those giant hotel like structures were perched hundreds of feet high. How did the residents get to the bottom or the top of the valley? How did they get well...anywhere? How did they go about building such structures? And, lastly, who was the first person to think up the scheme and how did they convince the others to go along with it?
It was an amazing sight to be sure. And yet, seeing those ancient homes and the view from Park Point were not the highlights of that day. On our way back down the mountain, while we were still close to the top, we pulled off of the road to take one last look at the beauty that surrounded us. Once the car stopped I opened my window to get a clearer view. It was only then that I noticed it.
There, perched on the very top branch of a barren tree was a small bird singing it's sweet song for all it was worth. The tree looked dead but was still straight and tall as it clutched the mountainside. The sight of that little bird against the background of the vast valley beyond overwhelmed me. It was THE most exciting and impressive moment of a day filled to overflowing with them. Looking at that little bird chirping from that tree branch made me think about the Creator of all I had seen that day and the amazing creativity of His handiwork.
In a strange way I felt a kinship with that little bird. Often, I feel very small with a whole lot of BIG swirling around me. Big problems, big choices, big decisions, big personalities, big pressures, big guilt, big sorrows, big loneliness, big.....you name it! At times, they all threaten to defeat me.
That little bird was very alone up there as her feet clung to the tree. I wondered where all the other birds were for I couldn't see any others. I asked myself how she kept alive in inclement weather or what she found to eat so high in the mountains. And yet, she was singing, rejoicing, doing what she was created for! She looked as if she didn't have a care in the world.....
And then it dawned on me! She didn't!!!! The same God that created her had created me. The same God that had given her life had given me life.The same God that provided for her, provided for me. The same God that gave her a purpose has given me a purpose.
Since she was a bird and I am a human we are not the same and we have a very different relationship with the Creator. I have been given a free will and a mind that can question and think deeply. I can choose to follow the Creator God in all circumstances or I can choose not to. The other thing that is night and day different from that little bird and me is that the Creator God sent His only Son to provide a way for me to be at one with Him even after I have disobeyed. Because of that forgiveness I can be like that little bird, trusting, singing, and rejoicing, doing what I am created for!
There is a song that my husband and I have been listening to a lot lately. The words of the chorus are:
"Greatly blessed. Highly favored. Imperfect but forgiven. Child of God!"
For me, those ten words convey what my life is all about. I am greatly blessed when I choose to see it. I am highly favored when I choose to believe it. I am imperfect absolutely. I am forgiven when I confess and then choose to accept it. I am a child of God because He loves me!!!!
Like that little bird, I will sing with abandonment; jubilantly praising the Lord of Hosts from the top of whatever kind of mountain I am on!
Have a good day!
Love, Sue
"Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" Matthew 6:23
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