A jumbled heap of boulders
stretches as an endless sea.
The question that comes to mind is
“How did this come to be?”
As I stand here at the edge,
I feel so very small.
The field of boulders beckons.
I heed discovery’s call.
My stylish hot-pink flip-flops,
I soon learn, aren’t the best,
for hopping to and fro
across this varied boulder mess.
It’s similar to hopping
from rock to rock across a stream.
But there’s no hint of vegetation,
nor any water to be seen.
There’s no dirt between the boulders.
And underneath? … just boulders more.
I look back, far away,
to see the distant tree-lined “shore.”
At four-hundred feet across
and eighteen-hundred feet long,
I find, here in the middle,
not a sound of nature’s song.
The silence takes me by surprise,
like something you can feel.
Not a hint of breeze is stirring;
the air is even still.
It suddenly seems lonely,
here in this vast expanse;
Completely void of life;
completely void of plants.
I feel so very tiny
before my Creator here.
This wonder I’m experiencing,
He’s had here all these years.
Before this was “discovered”
God was right here in this place,
being glorified in the glaciers,
which scoured the earth’s face.
His hand was in the water
that worked into bedrock cracks.
His were the freezing temperatures
that split the rocks and made them stack.
The slow-moving glacial slurry,
God set in motion on its way,
so that we could all “discover”
this wonder here today.
I think about the glacier,
and how it must have been back then:
the empty barren landscape;
the silence and the wind.
Though not a soul was there,
God took joy in what occurred.
Even in the silence,
God’s glory could be heard.
I have a new perspective
on this silence that I feel.
I appreciate the chance
to sit and just be still.
For the “noise” of daily living
tends to press from all around.
Clear-mindedness and stillness
aren’t easy to be found.
Though the silence is refreshing,
I can’t forever stay.
I must head back to the “noise”
that comprises my every day.
I make my way back to the trees,
full of crickets and daytime bugs,
and katydids that chirp all night long
while I wear my earplugs.
It’s sad to leave the Boulder Field,
but that’s not where I belong.
God’s special place for me
is in the “noise” and in the song.
My great Creator God,
who was here at the very start,
who formed this Boulder Field,
and who broke the bedrock apart …
Is also right with me
in everything that I do.
No matter how insignificant,
I am in His view.
If God can do a work
such as this amazing boulder “sea,”
there’s simply no imagining
the work He’s doing in me.
In the silence, noise, and songs
that make up my every day,
may I, like the Boulder Field,
bring praise to His great name!
By: Amy Hayes
August 2012
