A Long Time Ago...

The desert of southern Utah presents a few dominant themes:

Time - the geology, the landforms, the erosion, the rivers...it all communicates vast spans of time.  Standing by the side of the road, pondering the Seuss-like landforms all around, it is impossible not to think of the eons and eons of time it took to sculpt such things.  Furthermore, sightings of sea fossils, petrified sand dunes, frozen ripples from an ancient sea...these things contribute to the sense of great age.  It's hard to avoid feeling quite temporary in the desert.

Within Canyonlands National Park.

Wind, Sand and Water - these forces act, in conjunction with time, to carve the desert.  As I stood just north of Grand Staircase in the teeth of a 50 mph wind storm...feeling the sand particles needle my skin...it was pretty easy to see how wind and sand act as primary shapers.   Walking through slot canyons carved by centuries and centuries of flash floods, rains and torrents, the undeniable power of water is quite obvious.

A narrow wash carved by water

Layers - everywhere you look, layers.  Old sand dune deserts, sediments from ancient oceans, vast plains from pre-history, forested basins...everywhere is evidence of what came before.  The lower the layer, the older the earth.  Geologists have it all labeled and categorized, have established time-lines and scenarios.  The names of the layers conjure mystery, history, wonder.  Navajo Sandstone.  Summerville Formation.  Kayenta Formation.  White Rim Sandstone. Moenkopi Formation.  What would it be like to see 270 million years sped up, compressed into a 2-hour movie?  Faults lifing and falling, oceans advancing and retreating.  Forests flourishing and dying.  Layer upon layer.

Layers of Entrada Sandstone, born of ancient tidal flats.

God's Imagination - of course, for a Christian, this is all just a reflection of the Creator and his infinite imagination.  I know some don't give any credence to the idea of geologic time, to the notion of millions and millions of years, of imperceptible erosion and shaping by wind and rain.  Perhaps they are right.  As for me, Utah reminds me of the agelessness of God, of His imagination, of his power and, even, of his sense of humor.

Wind. Rain. Time. Imagination.