What will stick with me on this trip was the time I get to spend with Jackson. A coupel of things really came together: 1. Time in nature with him 2. A chance to express how nature reflects God
I have been reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I have not read much at this point but I am enjoying the first chapter. He focuses on how nature cries out the glory of God. Jackson and I had some time to hike. The property encompasses part of Arkansas Mountain above Junkins Park. We were climbing some boulders on the side of the mountain and he asked me about pine cones.
"Dad, how does a pine cone work?"
I explained to him how pine cones form when pollen from one tree is transfered to the 'flower' of another and the tree forms a pine cone. I then explained to him how the pine cone will open up when the seeds are mature, and how the seeds have paper-like wings which allow them to be lifted and carried by the wind. If the seeds lands in the right situation then it will grow into a tree and the process will start over. The original pine cone, when the seeds are gone, dies and falls off the tree to give a father and his son the opportunity to talk about God. The simplicity and the genius of design was not lost on my 7 year-old. It should not be lost on us either.
That night we sat out on the deck. The cabin is in the Wet Mountains 15 miles east of Westcliffe. It is absolutely dark out there at night except for the moon and stars. After watching the sun go down over the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, we began to see a spectacular light show. Jackson talked about how he had never seen a shooting star and he wondered what they were. I told him they were just meteors burning up in earth's atmosphere and that they happen all the time. In the Colorado night sky it is very common place to see them.
I then started talking to him about the planets we could see (Venus in this case). Jackson's grandfather Stephens asked him what the order of the planets was, and Jackson was able to tell him first to last. We talked about how the planets orbit the sun perfectly and any slight misalignment would cause a disaster. We could see the outer rim of the Milky Way Galaxy and we talked about how our sun is just one star out of billions in the galaxy. We talked about how our galaxy is just one of billions in the universe. And that man does not even know how man galaxies there are because of our limited technology and the vastness of the universe.
This all led up to me sharing with him that all of the things we were looking at and discussing scream loudly of the amazing glory of our God. That throughout life he will hear people dismiss creation as divine and come up with elaborate explanations of how all of creation is by random chance, but the truth is that man cannot even duplicate a human hair successfully, much less comprehend the workings of the entire universe. We have a creator and he is magnificent. He loves us more than we can comprehend. He created the universe yet desires most to have us praise him and to have relationship with us.
I explained all of this to him as he sat on my lap and we tried to stay warm under the Colorado night sky. I knew there is no other place I would have rather been at that moment; that this was what being a father is all about; that my son listens to me and wants to learn; and that my children are two of the largest blessings you could ever have. I also learned he is too big to sit on my lap anymore :( (that is a big Kid!)
And then a massive shooting star streaked North to South across the sky, turning from hot white to bright green and then fading away...........
