A COUPLE OF CONSIDERATIONS

     So what do the world’s largest railroad classification yard and a country community flower garden have in common?  Simply that they both can help us consider some wonderful truths about our God.

     A mid-June week of vacation found my family and I camping in central Nebraska.  Isolated Calamus State Recreation Area was the sight and a good place to get to know one’s grandsons a little bit better.  Both of them have at times expressed interest in trains so a side trip to North Platte and its recently opened Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center seemed in order.  The eight story, enclosed, 360 degree view, all weather tower replaces a two story wood platform that served for many a year as a viewing platform for train buffs.  The new view is pretty impressive.  It gives an overview of a gigantic 24/7 Union Pacific railroad operation that is quite complex from a layman’s perspective.  Sorting of railroad traffic going east and west is done almost automatically and hands-free.  Appropriate engines are matched with trains for efficiency and purpose.  It is amazing that such a complex operation simply appeared there by chance.  “NOT!!”  How absurd!  Obviously knowledgeable people planned and prepared the sight and operation. 

     So what does this all have to do with God?  Well, how can anyone look at our complex and vast universe, far more so than a U.P. classification yard, and say that there is no God.  To say such is simply insane and absurd!  God created and runs it all. 

     When you think and live at the human level sometimes our world seems confusing and chaotic, somewhat out of control.  Getting eight stories up helps one to understand the U.P. yard and to appreciate its designer.  If we could take on the heavenly perspective of God we might more readily appreciate His presence, planning, and control.  But rest assured there is a good and gracious God who created everything and continues to run it.

     Comstock, Nebraska is a tiny town of approximately 100, and more recently noted for its outdoor rock concerts.  It is on a back road with its two short blocks of community buildings on one side.  The buildings on the other side of the road burnt a number of years back.  The “can do” community made lemonade with lemons when they turned what was left of the burnt area into a beautiful and unique community flower garden well worth the out-of-the-way trek to view.  Omaha has its Lauritzen Gardens but they are nothing like Comstock’s.  These good country folk take what others would consider junk and make it useful and interesting in their garden.  For example, a brightly colored old bowling ball becomes a “red-neck” gazing ball, a broken ceramic pot dug half way into the ground becomes a container spilling out “hen and chicks,” and the remaining walls and floor of a power station, decorated with old patio furniture and rotting window frames, becomes a “Friendship Patio.”  Words can hardly describe this inviting place. 

Pastor G