Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
If you have ever visited Arches National Park in Utah, you know that there are tons (literally) of rock formations. With all these formations, it’s very easy to “see” things. What I mean by this is, when you are walking around or driving through the park, your imagination allows you to create various shapes or even faces in these sandstone formations. When we visited the park a few weeks ago, we had a guide that drove us to the various arches and along the way pointed out all the shapes and faces he saw and thought we could see as well. In fact, he wrote a book of all these “sightings” (you can read about the author and his book at this link: https://www.rock-faces.com/
This particular image is in the area known as “Park Avenue.” A wider image shares a resemblance to the skyline of Park Ave, NYC. The close-up image above is of this center rock, which is named Pharaoh (also Queen Nefertiti, or whatever YOU see).
The reason I thought about this particular rock this week was due to what we are studying in our Sabbath School class. Can you guess? If you said Moses, gold star for you. The “Pharoah” rock formation made me think of Moses’ life and how God had a plan from the time he was born. We were reading how the pharaoh of the time (Ramses II) wanted all the Hebrew baby boys to be killed, but God had a different plan for Moses. You know the story. Hidden in a basket in the river, the pharaoh’s daughter finds him, pays his own mother to care for him, until he’s brought to the palace. Moses grows up with all the privileges one can have, until he loses his temper and saves a slave’s life but kills the attacker. Banished to a life on the run, he spends the next 40 years herding sheep. Then the famous encounter with the burning bush and God’s plan is put back into action – Moses to lead His people out of slavery.
Of course, that’s the shortened version of the story. My point? God has a plan for all of us. In Moses’ case, he actually hesitated on God’s plan. He didn’t understand – Why me? Why now? No thanks – I’m not your guy. We may have similar reactions when God exposes His plan to us. We may have doubts or even negative feelings. What I will say to that – think of Moses. He may not have understood (or even agreed with) the plan, but he trusted God and he ultimately agreed to the plan. Smart.
We can be smart too. All we have to do is listen and trust in Him. Know that God has a plan for each of us and He will be with us, every step of the way.