Beauty Out of Chaos

Northern Arizona is home to a number of unusual landscapes.  The longest slot canyon in the world, "Buckskin Gulch", can be found there.  Another rare landscape called "The Wave" is also nearby.  A lesser known location is "White Pocket".  How White Pocket was formed remains a mystery to geologists.  The rock layers look as though they were fluid at one time and then shaken up before they suddenly hardened.  The result is a combination of multicolored sandstone waves, patterned cracks, and a white/gray almost dune like surface layer.

I recently hiked White Pocket and found the scenery to be stunning, almost "other worldly". When you first see White Pocket you are posed with the question, "what happened here?"  Yet the beauty amidst the chaos is remarkable.   The world we live in is full of examples of catastrophic beauty.  Consider how some of the famous places on earth came to be: The Grand Canyon - large amounts of raging water, Mt. Everest - tectonic plate collision, and Hawaii - volcanic eruptions.  Yet all these place are famous because of the awesome beauty that is present.

Nature can be chaotic, but in the hands of an all powerful, all present, and all knowing God, nature conforms to God's purposes.  God uses His creation to show what He is like.  Romans 1:20 says this about God and His creation; "For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.  God can take chaos and turn it into beauty.  He can also turn a life filled with sin and despair into something beautiful.  Jesus said in John 11:28-30;  “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”.