Whew! We made it! What a trip—our family travelled from Boise to San Diego this past week. Including trips to the beach, we racked up over 2,000 miles. The scenery was fantastic both ways—we did a loop through Las Vegas on the way down and through Elko on the way back up. The massive rock formations inspired awe. Some of the clouds we found to be other-worldly beautiful and awesome. But it was at dusk last night as we made our way through Nevada near the Idaho border that we came upon something I’ll never forget.
I had the ’99 Dodge Grand Caravan humming along at the accepted clip of 65 mph. We came over a rise into a canyon with sage brush all around. I started breaking when I saw some critters on the road—we had seen a fair share of deer on the road already. But these were no deer.
A pack of nearly 20 wild horses watched our deep cranberry minivan slow to a stop. They were all around us—beautiful and healthy, all different colors, all free and unbroken. Wild horses. Amazing. It was a special event for our family to see—wide eyed and jaws dropped, all.
As amazing as it was to see them, after just a few moments, they galloped away. I came away from the experience extremely grateful for a new reference point in the spectrum of all that can be found on this earth. God made the wild horses, you see. Genesis 1:25 clearly states:
“God made the wild animals according to their kinds,
the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures
that move along the ground according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good.”
I’ll vouch for that! It was good. It was good to see that incredible pack of wild horses roaming strong and free. It was good, everything that God had made in the beginning . . . until it wasn’t. The spoiling specter of sin slithered into God’s perfect world and nothing has been the same since.
The fact is that everyone born from a sinful mother and a sinful father is sinful. It doesn’t take long for selfishness to surface in the very young. How often have we failed to appreciate the beauty, grandeur and scale of this tremendous world the Lord has created for us, even now as it is tainted by sin.
It is frightening the depth of sick depravity, destructive bent, and dastardly deeds the human soul can conjure. We went to Virginia City yesterday and saw the articles about the massacre of wild horses during the Christmas of 1998. Two men were finally arrested for the crime of needlessly destroying 34 wild horses in the Nevada hills. It sickened me to hear of it.
How much more sickening when human beings turn their violent lashings against each other.
Perhaps your personal crimes are not as gruesome. Yet anger or hate—the beginnings of a violent crime—are listed in Christ’s explanation as equally sinful as the conclusion of a violent crime. Thinking the worst of someone, bitterness, putting others down—these sins are awful sprouts of the root of sin with which we were born and which will cause us trouble until the sun sets in the West for the last time.
Praise God that he sent his Son, our Savior! Jesus never gave in to hate, bitterness, or sinful anger. Through his life of perfection (which is credited to us through faith in him) and his suffering and death, Christ tamed the Evil One. Jesus took your punishment for sin upon himself and given you the absolute assurance that you have the forgiveness of sins, eternal life in heaven, and deep peace of mind and soul. Praise God! What a reason to live in thanks and praise to the God who made all things—you, this great earth, and even the wild horses. Enjoy them, dear faith family—your loving God has given you so much!
Lastly, as you travel or send others on the open road—please remember to pray. As we began our journey last week, we all prayed that the Lord would bless our trip. As we rolled into Boise last night, we gave thanks to God who watched over us and blessed our trip. The act of “committing your way to the Lord” can also include the practical practice of praying as you begin and end travel. God be with you, dear faith family, no matter where you are off to this summer!
Have a blessed week!
--Pastor Dan