A Snapshot from Colorado

Hello, all!  It is day 4 in Colorado, and Lydia and I are having a blast!  We have been exploring the little village of Estes Park (that is remarkably similar to the strip in Gatlinburg), whitewater rafting on the Poudre River, and just today we spend six hours on the road traversing the Continental Divide and dipping our feet into the Colorado River.  There is nowhere else on the planet that would have been a better honeymoon location for us!  It is impossible to miss God’s greatness when you wake up to the sight of the Rocky Mountains soaring into the sky on every side of you, elk wandering in the middle of the road, yellow-bellied marmots blundering along the side of a cliff (see picture below if you’re wondering what a yellow-bellied marmot is!), and God’s greatest creation–man–enjoying the beauty God has set before them.  

As I think about those men and women we passed today on our drive through the Rockies, I wonder what they think when they look across the sky only to see mountain after mountain after mountain lining the horizon; when they walk to the top of a trail to see the tundra stretching out before them, pristine and dotted with wildflowers; when they look down from the heights and see the valley floor stretching beneath them, a green carpet stretched out and running up the first stretch of the mountainside; when they are stopped in small groups staring at a wandering elk or a stray horned sheep that is oblivious to their presence.  As they see these things, are they just rushing to capture a photograph and move on to the next best location?  Are they amazed at how natural selection has prepared some of the wildlife for survival?  Are they wondering what they are going to eat for supper?  Or are they blasted away at the greatness of a Creator who is infinite in his creativity?  Do they see that the wildlife, the fauna and flora, the mountains, the clear sky and nonchalantly walk away, or does something resound in their soul? 

God’s word says:

   “¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;

         the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

    ² Day after day they pour forth speech; 
       night after night they display knowledge.

    ³ They have no speech, they use no words; 
       no sound is heard from them.

    ⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, 
       their words to the ends of the world.” (Ps. 19:1-3 TNIV)

and:

 

“…what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Rom. 1:19-20)

God makes it known through his creation–from the farthest star to the highest mountain to the lowest depths, and from the largest, most ferocious bear to the tiniest tick–that there is a God.  And as Romans 1 says, the people that I see in Rocky Mountain National Park have clearly laid out before them the reality that there is a God, and that leaves them without excuse.  And that lays a burden upon my soul that was renewed even today: just as they are without excuse, so am I without excuse.  I should not be content with letting folks I come into contact with  go away with the general revelation of God through Creation without informing them of the specific revelation of God through Jesus Christ.  This is not just a theological blather, but is a burden on my soul.  I want to let no one come into contact with me without having to face a decision.  I think that Jim Eliot puts it the best in one of his journal entries that his wife  put together in “Shadow of the Almighty.”  I don’t have the exact quote on me, but basically Jim says that he wants to be a cause of decision.  He wants to put himself into the path that people are walking on and force them to make a decision–either Christ or themselves.  

That being said, I want to share with you some pictures that I took in the past couple of days.  They are varied, but hopefully the captions will help.  So I will end with these pictures until next time.

Lyd and I stopped on the way up the Rockies and thought this was a good picture.

This is on the way up Old Fall River Road, looking down into the basin below.

The Rockies are behind us…amazing!

This is the strange looking and quite intriguing yellow-bellied marmot I mentioned above.

This is further up in the mountains…note the elevation. We were getting pretty hungry by this point.

Lyd with Rockies…

Me with Rockies…

Lyd standing in the Colorado. It was FREEZING!

This is us at our last stop of the day. And my new Indiana Jones hat.

Introduction to the Blogosphere

Hello, those out there who might read this (i.e. my family, and perhaps a few friends who accidentally get to this page)!  I don’t have any lofty intentions of spreading the thin layer of wisdom that I have acquired over the years on this site.  I do intend to use this site to update you on how things are going in the world of Jesse Moss and to keep you updated with the humorous stories and pictures that speckle my life.  

For this first blog, I must give a shout-out to my GiGi, who will probably benefit most from the pictures I will post, seeing as she is always pressing me on printing my photos out for her.  So as I begin this introductory phase in blogging, I will begin with the most important thing in my life at this moment–my new wife.  Here are some pictures of our new apartment!

Well, it’s getting late here in Colorado, and we’re getting pretty hungry, so we’re going to head to town to get some grub and then come back and watch a movie.  Hopefully I’ll have a post up sometime tomorrow or Wednesday with some pictures from the Honeymoon (we should have some whitewater rafting pictures tomorrow!).