The Desert
In Scripture, the desert is a significant place and an important theme. It is the place where God is found when men realize they cannot live without Him. Each of us must make a trip to the desert, and wander until we learn that reliance on Him is the only means of sustaining our lives. With that in mind, here is a picture of the beauty in this God-not-forsaken place.
Wow! Please help me in my ignorance. Where was this taken?
I can imagine myself sitting on the sand and just staring at this scene for hours – listening to beauty
Between Flagstaff and the Marble Canyon bridge, Arizona
Ilze– My husband and I have traveled extensively in AZ through many years and frankly, I can not see you sitting on the sand or rocks and just staring at the scenes for hours— please check the temps during the day there! –I am going to write more below.—LaVaye
I will reconsider, but keep a door in my heart open.
As a child I spent a few years in Namibia. And I could sit for hours and watch and listen to the dunes.
I liked doing it so much, that when I was grown up and had a opportunity to work in Namibia, I took it – and again I could just sit and listen to beauty for hours when I had the time.
There is something incredibly honest about a desert – I like that basic, completely stripped honesty.
I had been to the Kalahari twice now, but it is not the same. There is already a lot of “clutter” in terms of tourism.
Went to the Middle East and North Africa several times as well. The Sahara sounds very different from the Namibian desert. And the Rub al’Khali (empty quarter) of the Sinai Peninsula is 100% different from the other two.
Really funny thing: I prefer extreme cold South African winters – and not heat – but I love being in a desert. 🙂
Skip, and to all who read, I would like to write some comments that could ease some of the pain that we all feel for Bessy and her family in the loss of her husband. Really just memories of the deserts in AZ, but some good ones. Our son, Scott-now 58 years old has spent most of his adult life living in Tucson; he has a small avionics engineering co. there, and has had license to fly since he was 18 years old. God has truly taken care of him in small planes in the desert since then! The first time I went up with him, he was a Senior in H.S. He flew me and his sister from Houston to the top of TX during the Spring Break to visit his grandparents. When Ed and the young daughters let us out at the small airport on the west side of Houston, and drove on to Austin, no one knew that the small rental plane had some engine problems when Scott checked it out. So we had to fly in the plane with Scott being the pilot across Houston per se to the east side to a big airport to get a mechanic. We did not have cell phones and no one knew that we taken this detour. It took sometime to accomplish this feat, and by the time we got back across Houston and on the air route to north it was dusk. Scott was a newly licensed pilot and had no training to fly with instruments! Talk about ignorance, and needing God’s directions! Well, He had carried us so far, but it was now pitch dark, what are we to do? God indeed gave us lights, yes, we had lived in Houston for years at that point and driven to Borger, north of Amarillo, many times. We could discern the towns along the way. As we were doing that, Ed and grandparents had communicated though, and by ll:00 p.m. and no sounds from us, they had decided that we were “down” somewhere. Prayers going up for ‘directions”. By 12 midnight, the two families that were able to talk on the phone, were sure there was not much hope. However; about that time Scott could see the light of the small airport in Borger, for a few seconds the three of us were very excited, but then, Scott realized that the gas tank was next to empty, and the airport was right on the edge of the canyon, and if we missed the runway, we would surely be down! The wind was blowing tool hard and his arrival was not accurate enough to land the first time. There was no human being awaiting us inside the airport.
— Of course you know how that night ended–safe and secure in the grandparents home. Well, I so prayed during all of this, if God would let us arrive safe going home two days later, that I would never get in a plane with my “child” flying again!
–But, oh the beauty of going home to Houston that the Heavenly Father provided from a small plane; it was Spring time, and the Palo Duro Canyon south of Borger was ablaze with wild flowers, and Central TX was even more so with blue bonnets, and Indian Paint Brush and other greenery. Flying in small planes give you such a view –awesome!
I kept my vow not to fly with my child, and it was not until 1999, when he was fully licensed in flight instruction, instruments and many other credentials, and hours of experience that he gave us an extra ordinary day’s flight across AZ.– a total surprise Christmas Gift.
–If only one person will write and ask me to write about that, I will gladly do it.—May God give us all His Hope, Peace, and love for others. LaVaye Billings ( I am writing this during the election time vote count in TX—and trying to escape all that.)
Ed’s brother in Northeastern Alaska several times gave us magnificent flights in his small plane.
Ilze, You wrote some very interesting observations about your life , thank you. I got my atlas out ( I love maps) and observed the locations you have visited or lived in. I grew up on the plains and top of TX during the depression and added burden of the dust bowl that lasted in our area about seven more years! I went through too many severe sand storms and saw the damage done to crops, homes, health of individuals, and broken people to ever think of liking any thing remotely not Green! But of course I was married before Uncle Sam pointed his finger at my husband as soon as he graduated from college–where we met, and he was sent to SF Bay area in CA. After the two years there, as his God given talents were athletics, we returned to Central TX–for more education– Waco–Baylor U. and it is certainly not a desert area. For the next 40 plus years we traveled and lived in many areas in the states, and were so blessed like you to work in a third world country: in those days it was West Pakistan. Many doors were opened to visit several weeks in different countries on the trip over, and while we were there, and on the return trip the opposite direction–to make ‘around the world trip” in one year. –Our marathon for a home was 26 years in Houston,TX.( July 3–we will have been married 60 years–if the Lord allows that). Now we live in Central TX in a rural area, with large old live oaks–A & M says they are between 500 & 600 years. Wilt oak has taken many in our area, and two of ours. We have a great garden, and the two of us have landscaped our property with many flowers, plants, -one year we had our yard on tour-and I had 23 different types of just herbs alone,– shrubs, etc. We love God’s green things! but I still can see the beauty in the deserts in AZ. and especially from the air in a small plane. I could not sit and observe the desert areas though– it reminds me too much of the poverty that I grew up in. — God has given you a special love to enjoy it as you do!– Were your parents missionaries? And what was your profession to live in Africa?