Now This Is a Park Bench!

Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Calhan, Colorado

As much as I enjoy the Paint Mines for its weird shaped rocks, I also enjoy it for its never ending prairie.  Those of you who know me, know that I love the ocean.  This is an ocean of another kind and it seems to stretch as far as the horizon.

Instead of hearing the crashing waves, you listen to the cry of coyote.   Instead of seeing a whale spouting, you notice a bounding deer.  Instead of watching the graceful flight of pelicans, you contemplate the flight of a Great Horned owl as it silently passes by.

I could sit here for hours.

But I end up sitting for only minutes.  The openness creates an uneasiness inside of me.  It is hard to sit in the magnitude of the prairie and not contemplate the reality of life.

"I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said,  'Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.'  Then my spirit made a diligent search: 'Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?'...  Then I said, 'I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.' I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old." Psalm 77:5-7, 10-11 ESV

The gift of grace is the ability to look back over our lives and see the hand of God, not the failures of our human frailty.  Satan loves nothing more than to drag us into the endless prairie of failure.  Grace picks us up and places us like child in the lap of God.

You see, we don't sit alone on this bench.  The one who has taken on our human flesh and who knows our frailty sits with us...and bless us.

Enjoy the view!

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.