West 2008: Sunday, July 27, 2008

The final day of our trip was one of the shortest driving days. Just 175 miles back to our Columbus, Ohio home. But before leaving Indianapolis, we made one stop to visit the grave of Linda’s dad, John Hubble, in Wanamaker, Indiana. He had gone home to be with the Lord just five months earlier, on Valentine’s Day.

This trip was a reminder to us of several important things. Ending the trip in a cemetery and visiting the place where my brother trained for the Navy were both reminders of the temporary nature of this life we have on earth. We all face the same future. Where there is now life there will one day be death.

We were also reminded of how imaginative our Creator God is. The variety of rock formations and animal and plant life on this planet is truly remarkable. Everywhere we pointed our cameras, binoculars, and eyes, we saw the greatness of the creation of God.

The spirit of determination which God put into the human heart was also apparent to us on this trip. Following the paths blazed by pioneers who conquered impossible lands, we sailed along in our car on broad, smooth ribbons of concrete. But we could only do that because of them and that drive God put within them.

We were also reminded of the sin that lies within the human heart as we looked at places like Farragut and the Little Bighorn where war was once prominent. All wars come from the passions of the human heart, the Bible says, and it was those passions of self and greed that raised up a Naval training center in Idaho and a battlefield in a peaceful valley in Montana.

And although we may not have been comfortable with the doctrine of a church in Idaho, we were reminded that there were those who gave up much to take the knowledge of the claims of Jesus Christ to native Americans. Not to fight them. Not to take from them. But to minister to them in the name of Jesus.

So, this trip reminded us of who we are, sinners saved by the grace of God whose imagination flung the sights we saw across this continent, and, indeed, across the world, and whose love found a way to forgive man’s sin through the death of His own Son.

To God be the glory. Great things He has done.

Photo: The cemetery in Wanamaker, Indiana where Linda's dad is buried.