The Desert

So there's this quote, "life is not measure by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Today (actually a couple days ago but today sounds better and makes it seem like i'm on top of things) I had one such moment. I was driving, on I-15 between Barstow and Victorville. For those of you who are not familiar with these two places they are smack dab in the middle of the desert, only miles away from Death Valley a place with the hottest recorded temperature in North America. It's also a few minutes away from Fort Irwin where soldiers come to train because the weather conditions here are more severe than they will be in Iraq and Afghanistan. The only reason someone would venture onto this part of I-15 is to get from Los Angeles to Vegas or vice verse. So needless to say there isn't much to see. But today I allowed myself to just drive and take in the sites around me. And for the first time I noticed the beauty and uniqueness of the desert.
Let me start off my saying, I'm not a desert person. I like the beach, the rainforest, cities, most other landscapes, but when people say the desert is beautiful I fail to make the connection between dry, heat, sandy, cacti, and beautiful. These things do not seem synonymous to me. But today for the first time I finally understood. There is something truly magnificent about seeing the desert surround you for miles and miles on all sides. It's a place that is unlike any other. The animals and plants that are able to survive in these places are truly a symbol of the miraculous, a sign to those that lack faith (me among them) that there must be a creative, magnificent God that commanded this all into being. The desert is a place that even Bear Grylls has a difficult time making it out of alive. Most of us could not survive longer than a couple days in the heat and would die of dehydration. But it's also a place that embodies peace. It's quiet and soothing and the night sky is filled with stars and a gentle breeze. How could both power and peace coexist? But they do. When I finally realized the awesomeness of the desert my breath was truly taken away and it's something that will forever remind me of the awesomeness of our Creator.