As I mentioned last week, our daughters joined us as we drove to San Diego for my brother's celebration of life. On the way, we visited the Painted Desert.
Taking off at Exit 311, we drove to the visitor center, parked in a shady spot and had lunch. The visitor center would allow only a certain number of people at any given time, so we waited a few minutes -- in the shade. It was 95 degrees in the sun. The average September temperature at the Painted Desert is about 83, with a record high of 103. (The next day we drove through 117-degree heat on I-8 southwest of Phoenix.)
We bought a few souvenirs, a Painted Desert DVD, drank some water and headed out.
In 1540 AD, conquistador and explorer Francisco Vazquez de Coronado was looking for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold, but was greatly disappointed. (There's an interesting story behind that.) But returning to the Colorado River to fill their water barrels, his band of soldiers discovered this vast 7,300-square-mile area of colored dirt, rocks, hills, arroyos, and flatlands. I don't know Coronado's expletives, but our daughter erupted with, "Oh My Word!"
I remember what I said as a 12-year-old the first time I saw it. "Dad, it looks like when God was through making the world, He emptied His paint buckets here."
Coronado named this area El Desierto Pintado, which literally means, The Desert Painting -- but translated as, The Painted Desert.
"Dad," Rebecca remarked, "These colored layers are underneath us everywhere, but what we see has been revealed by catastrophic forces."
The various colors are determined by intermingled geological material. Sandstone is abundant, and its colors are determined by granularity, specific age and climate when it was laid down. Minerals give the rocks and dirt their color. The shades and hues of colors depend on the variable density of iron and manganese, and the amount of oxygen available.
When it rains, water displaces oxygen and the colors will change. That's one reason your camera may reveal different colorizations on different trips. But don't forget the available sunlight. As clouds move across the sky, colors change dramatically.
Most of the layers of siltstone, mudstone and shale erode easily. Therefore, whenever there is a rare rainstorm, heavy flash-floods wash away dirt, rocks, sand, petrified wood, etc., which expose different colors and reform the landscape. In the Chinle Formations (named after Chinle, Ariz.), we find petrified trees, animals and other plants. With each flash-flood, more fossils are exposed. We can see dinosaur tracks and evidence of human habitation. The volcanic ash in the Chinle mud provides most the silica for generating fossilized or petrified wood.
It looks funny to see layers of heavy rock formations lying on top of soft sandy material, but that's part of the beauty of the area. If you've ever been to the Badlands of South Dakota, you'll see a strong resemblance to some of the topography of the Painted Desert.
When you visit the Painted Desert (and the Petrified Forest), allow yourself four hours. You can drive through and see it in two hours if you're in a hurry, but you'll miss the magnanimity of the area. God arranged a beautiful picture of life here. Let me explain.
It took only a few years to transform heavily vegetated areas into a desert. It took many more years of heat, pressure, volcanic eruptions, and floods to petrify trees, make fossils and wash away sufficient landscape to create the grandeur of the Painted Desert.
We humans, also, suffer pain, encounter confrontation, and face catastrophes in life. Those problems create emotional and psychological layers within us – some hard and some soft. In the turmoil, some folks give up and decay, or wash out in an emotional flash-flood.
But if we let Him, God can use the problems to create a beautiful life for us. If we respond properly, the problems can inject beauty into us instead of destroying us. We become a stronger person to rebuff the pressures of the world, while God uses the beauty within us to bless others.
God can use our lives as a park ranger to help us avoid the pitfalls in life, and as a pointer on a trail to show the way to safety. In that manner, our lives become beautiful landscapes that will bless God and others – even people we don't know. Jesus, in John 3, is the example.
-- S. Eugene Linzey is the author of 'Charter of the Christian Faith.' Send comments and questions to [email protected]. Visit his website at www.genelinzey.com. The opinions expressed are those of the author.