The Open Road

Thunder in the Soul

It’s nearly two years since we moved to the US and we’ve finally embarked on our first road trip.

Setting off from Denver, we drove up through Colorado, across Wyoming and into Idaho for four nights next to Grand Teton National Park.

Then off again and up to northern Montana for a week by Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park. In total around 1,000 miles and 16 hours of driving.

Sat here now it’s funny thinking back to living in the UK, when just a three hour journey would feel like quite an undertaking. And we still need to drive the 1,000 miles back.

From dissecting the vast expanses of wilderness in our car, to the beauty of all the landscapes we’ve seen, it’s been a stirring experience.

Just this morning as I sat by the lake to watch the sun come up, a bald eagle soured into view and landed in a tree next to me. It began to fly loops out across the lake, swooping down to skim the water for fish before returning to the same spot.

Next an osprey appeared and in an act of avian hubris, successfully showed the eagle how it was done and flew off with breakfast in its talons.

Maybe this is the norm in Montana, but it’s certainly not for me.

“Ultimate wonder is not the same as curiosity. Curiosity is the state of a mind in search of knowledge, while ultimate wonder is the state of knowledge in search of a mind; it is the thought of God in search of a soul.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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Thunder in the Soul

Our days they slip away before our eyes,
The years appear then dissipate from view.
With heads drooped low and listless hearts we slide,
Sightless by the miracles that accrue.

God fill our eyes with sight so we might see,
Come sate our minds with you so we would know,
Like lightning let your presence strike our sleep,
Illuminate our darkness here below.

And then we’ll see the bush burns unconsumed,
What is life unless we ask for wonder. 
As earthen pots with you we’ve been suffused,
Let our souls reverberate with thunder.

Awaken us! We stand at heaven’s gate,
I know that God is near and in this place.