Take today, for instance, when I was on a sunset nature walk through the White Sands National Monument. We could fan out all we wanted on the dunes, but once we went into the interdunal spaces we had to walk single file. Why? Because there's something called cytobacteria that grows there and nourishes plant life. Without cytobacteria not one single plant could exist in that 250 square mile region. It's just some small, black fungus looking stuff but when you step on it you kill it, thus the single-file walking. The guide told us there are other national parks in this region where the signs say "don't bust the crust." The bacteria we killed would grow back in a couple weeks -- elsewhere it takes up to 40 years.

Later on our walk we saw different kinds of plants and trees able to co-exist with the ever changing dunes. A plant will start it's life in an interdunal space in a nice bowl of cytobacteria, but then the dunes will shift and try to drown it so it has to get real tall, real fast. Thus you get a 6-foot yucca with a 40-foot root system. Or the dune could decide it'd like to move on. Other plants send out branches to surround the sand they're sitting on like a net and they end up with their own little island or "pedestal." I have to tell you, those yuccas and pedestals were just itching me like crazy to come up with some sort of spiritual metaphor! ;)

We got to a high point in time to see a sunset that lit the entire sky, 360 degrees around. It was stunning and of course my camera battery died at just that instant! I did get a few pics though. If you'd like to see them, as well as pics from my earlier trip to the White Sands Missile Museum, click here.

I'd like to wrap up by sharing a comment my dad posted earlier this evening. I don't know how many of you are "comment" readers but I thought this was so amazing I'd paste it into a regular post so no one would miss it.

so this lady calls me about going to the Holy Land. I ask her why she wants to go. she says, do you have a couple minutes, yes, I say. she says "I'm 55, smoked all my life, used to do drugs. last year I felt lumps and could hardly take a full breath. a friend told me I was going to die within 6 months the way I coughed like another friend who just died. I got out of the car one day and could not breath, I leaned on the hood and decided to call a guy that worked with me since from something he said I thought he might know God. I called him and told him how bad I was and did he know how to pray, I had heard some people pray for the sick, lay hands or something like that. Anyway he said yes and prayed for me over the phone. I felt my chest go up and down 5 times or so involuntarily, like I watched my chest just do its own thing. I felt for the lumps...they were gone. I have felt like I am 30 again for the past year. I want to go walk where my saviour/healer walked."

What a mighty God we serve.