Trip Through Southern New Mexico

Hanne and I decided to take a spontaneous trip this week.  Yesterday we drove through the Valley of Fire, which consists of a number of lava fields and is pretty magnificent.  This is also the area where the first atomic bomb was tested.  Shortly after this first test (a little over a month) the bombs were dropped on Japan.  It was crazy standing there and thinking about that.

This morning we went to White Sands National Monument.  The above pictures don't do justice to the sand dunes.  The dunes are made up of gypsum and are white as snow and amazingly beautiful.  Hanne and I hiked up to the top of one of the dunes and read Scripture and prayed together.  It was a cool place for a devotional.  There is no place like this in the world.  Holloman Air Force Base is close by and they use this area for missile testing.  When I think about this area being used for this testing, it takes away from some of its natural beauty, in my mind at least.  It's unfortunate that no matter what we are surrounded by and no matter how unique something may be, humanity's tendency is to be destructive.  However, I suppose that this wide open space is ideal for missile testing.  I simply find it unfortunate that we feel the need to test missiles to promote or protect, however you want to look at it, our own interests. This is a whole different conversation than the one I intended to write about but one that I found myself contemplating at the Valley of Fire and White Sands.  May the Word of God break through the violence and oppression that continually plagues our world and may we one day look to his Word (rather than human authority, force, violence, and oppression) for answers.  I have faith and trust that one day he will restore all things...

Tomorrow we are going to Carlsbad Caverns, another place which is one of a kind.  Our plan from there is to visit the aliens in Roswell and then hang out for a day or two in the forest of Ruidoso.  Then it's back up to Albuquerque for a few days before we depart to Portland, OR where we will be undergoing an assessment with a missionary organization we might be working with while in Europe.

"Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.  For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie.  If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay."
- Habakkuk 2:2-4