Once upon a cross-Kansas trek

I was born and raised a Kansas girl. It's where my roots are, and now those of my children.

And though the part of the state I live in now oft feels so very different from the part I was raised in, I was reminded recently as I trekked across the state for the funeral of a family member, just how lovely this "flyover" state is as I drove across it.

Maybe it's the immensely spacious fields fading off into the distance, peppered ever so sparsely with lovely old barns.

Or the sky that goes on for miles in any direction you look, painted and repainted regularly by God's own hand in the most breathtaking colors imaginable.

Perhaps it's the weather worn trees, some of which look rather war torn from the nearly ceaseless winds and occasional tornadoes that they have stood strong against for so long.

Maybe it's how you can see the subtle colors and changing of the seasons spread out over so many hills and valleys as far as the eye can see.

Or the many roadside reminders of the faith that so many in this part of the country hold dear.

Because let's face it, how can we honestly look out on this vastness of His creation and forget He who made it? It's really easy to lose sight of how phenomenally amazing creation is when we're too stuck in the hustle and bustle of human busyness to take a deep breath, much less notice this beauty that surrounds us. Harder still, I'm sure, when in the midst of a city where the sunrise and sunsets are interrupted by the skyscrapers and the lights of the stars are drowned out by streetlights.

But that's not so out here. This state, so often mocked for just being a bland flatland, still holds such immense God-given beauty. Sure, mountains and oceans and forests and deserts have that too. But don't doubt that it's there on the prairie, amidst the grasses swaying in the wind, under that immense, God painted sky. Even way out here in boonie land, where your cell service may be sketchy, God's hand in creation is certainly not so. Our attention span may sometimes be negligent to notice it, but it's there, just shouting to be seen.

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil

nor spin...if God so clothes the grass, which is alive

in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,

how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!"

Luke 12:27-28

Scripture captures this prairie land well when it calls on us to "consider how the wildflowers grow" and how "the grass withers and the flowers fade". Indeed, they do! And so many people just shrug that off as something ugly. But these things are meant to serve as a reminder to us that God is faithful to us and His Word will stand forever. These things around us come and go like chaff in the wind.

"The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever."

Isaiah 40:8

But not Him.

The Maker of all isn't blown hither and thither like the passing things of this world, thrust about by a brisk Kansas wind. He is the Maker of even the wind and directs it where He wills. How silly of us to think He should be swayed by it like we are!

So, as I trekked across Kansas on the way to and from a family funeral, I was reminded of this thing that sometimes I tend to forget in the chaos of my own life. All these earthly things will pass away. Even our own bodies will eventually give up the ghost and give in all the way to the brokenness put on them from The Fall. That's inevitable and sad and lamentable.

But also, is it not good news? Is it not part of The Good News? Where all that is old and broken down and beat up in this world is laid aside as we get to spend eternity with Christ our Savior? We can leave this broken and fleeting world, which seems so often hot in pursuit of Hell, and be bound for Heaven. That, my friends, is the hope we have in Him. That all that's broken will come undone, not because of anything we've done, but because of the finished work of Christ on the cross and what He does in our lives. Thank You, Jesus that this world isn't all we have to look forward to! Sure, I'll take all the lovely Kansas sunsets I can get, but none of those are as spectacular as what You have in store.

Still, I'll praise and thank You that You put things like that into creation to point us back to You. Because sometimes when we're so (sinfully) consumed with and surrounded by brokenness, that can be easy to miss. So, by all means, God, keep hitting us with all the slap-in-the-face reminders of Your Truth, Your Goodness, and Your Beauty we can get. Because the world's "truth", "goodness", and "beauty" can't even begin to compete with it.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 8:3-4