From Seminole Canyon we headed west toward Big Bend National Park and the Chihuahuan Desert.
A desert is (most simply) defined as any area receiving less than 10 inches of rain per year.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deserts_of_North_America.svg
We have 12 deserts in America, accumulatively known as the “Great Basin Desert.” The Great Basin Desert covers parts of 6 states and is 190,000 square miles, making it the tenth largest desert in the world. The Chichuahuan Desert (#12 on this map) is the largest both in the U.S. and on the North American Continent.
The Pecos River in West Texas
On our way to Big Bend, we crossed the Pecos River, which is the dividing line for the “Trans-Pecos Desert”—a subdivision of the Chichuahuan Desert.
Long trains heavily loaded with double box cars
The Trans-Pecos Desert of West Texas is famous not only for its desert areas but also for its low population density. In an area of 31,479 sq. miles, outside of El Paso there are only 3 cities with a population over 5,000 people.
Even deserts have a beauty all their own!
Terrell County has a population density of less than 0.5 persons per square mile (as opposed to New York County, with 69,468 persons per square mile).
I think of deserts as being vast, flat stretches of sand, but the Chichuahuan Desert has mountains too.
Very soon we began to see hilly areas with unusual rock formations.
We felt very vulnerable. There were very few vehicles on the highway and huge distances between roads and small towns. We only found two spots where we could get gas and no place to eat, so we stopped at a tiny turnout (with no bathroom) for our lunch and a nap.
Peaks of the the Chisos Mountains loomed on the distant horizon.
Still, it was a perfect day for mid-March, with a cloudless blue sky and only about 75°.
Big Bend has BIG skies. Spring wasn’t quite in bloom, but the scenery went from khaki drab to colorful: Yellow and gold in the foreground, and hazy blue mountains and sky in the distance.
We took a welcome break to enjoy Big Bend National Park’s Fossil Discovery Exhibit.
The open-air museum is on the exact location where the paleontologist, Dr. John Wilson, discovered ancient fossils of both land and sea animals embedded in the rocks.
There are magnificent replicas of some of the more impressive bones (such as this dinosaur thigh bone), although the originals have been placed under lock and key to prevent theft!
To quote the poster above, “The rocks preserving this history of life came from tropical seas, swampy coastlines, forested floodplains, and volcanic highlands.”
Apparently the entire desert was covered by seas at one time. We’ve been in Pokhara, Nepal, at the International Mountain Museum. Did you know there are fossils of sea creatures at the top of Mt. Everest? We were on a cruise to Antarctica last winter. Did you know there are remains of tropical fish frozen in the ice near the South Pole?
Ancient Petrified Tree
Do you ever wonder how it’s possible that remnants of volcanic highlands, forests, and sea creatures all ended up as a mixed up heap of fossils in the middle of America’s greatest desert? Or that there are sea creatures on the top of the highest mountain in our world . . . or tropical fish once swimming under polar ice?
How could all of this have happened?
I believe if the bones could cry out, they would explain what happened, and it would be consistent with the account in Genesis 7-8. Read if for yourself, but my best understanding of what happened from trying to piece together material evidence and the scriptural account is that before the cataclysmic flood of Noah’s day, the earth was enveloped with a protective, misty layer of clouds that protected people from direct sunlight, and I’m guessing the “mountains” weren’t very high. However, when the flood began, “the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Gen. 7:11).
Somewhere after the entire world was overwhelmed by water and all living creatures died (except those on the ark with Noah), volcanic eruptions due to the pressure changes caused continents to break apart, amazing mountains to rise from the depths, and deserts to form where there was once standing water. I also think it’s possible that this is the event that caused polar shifts creating seasons—as well as God’s merciful promise that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).
Have you ever felt like your world has been flooded with trouble and turned upside down? Has the green spring of your life turned into an arid desert? This happened to the prophet Ezekiel. He felt overwhelmed by the destruction of Israel, so the Lord took him out to a valley of dried bones (maybe sort of like the one we saw that day) and asked Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest” (Ezekiel 37:3).
God then promised He would raise up the bones, put his Spirit within them, and cause them to live (Ezekiel 37:14). It’s a fantastic vision of hope, and I believe God offers it to each of us today. No matter what our past problems, if we cry out to God in repentance for our sins and faith in Jesus Christ (David’s “son” but also his “lord” [Psalm 2:7]), He will save us and restore us, just as He has also promised to do for Israel if they will trust and obey Him. Total surrender to come alive. I’ve surrendered. Will you also?
Ezekiel 37:21-24:
21And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.”
In the accounts of Jesus, immediately after his baptism, he was led “up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matthew 4:1). How perfectly appropriate that Jesus first would teach us to “suffer it to be so now” (Matthew 3:15), and then immediately endure suffering (forty days of fasting in the wilderness) and temptation (which is what happens to all of us when we’re deprived of what we need). What were the temptations? How did Jesus respond? What can we learn for ourselves when we face temptation?
In a nutshell, Satan’s temptations were all designed to see if he could get Jesus to act on his own behalf instead of in obedience to God the Father. The temptations were simple and universal: 1. Use personal power to provide for personal needs (rather than relying on God’s direction and timing) 2. Demand God’s protection (rather than waiting for God’s plan) 3. Worship Satan (who is behind anything that distracts us from worshiping God) in order to obtain wealth and power. 
After each temptation, Jesus responded with Scripture that explained why the suggestion was wrong, and then he concluded by saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8). I pondered whether or not we could claim such a command for ourselves, since we read in Jude 1:9, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” If God’s mighty archangel didn’t dare to rebuke Satan, should we? We are definitely counseled to “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you“(James 4:7) and to “take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13). I understand that it’s possible to resist and withstand, but can we command?
During the first Christmas my oldest was able to toddle around, he kept asking for permission to “see” then “touch” then “hold” the Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately, he was too young to hold an ornament for very long before it would fall, and if I wasn’t right there to catch the bulb, it would break.
So, in our home, the line went, “See it? Hold it? Touch it? Break it!”
I think we all have a fascination with holding things that fill us with awe—whether it’s a shiny Christmas ornament or an exotic living creature. 
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about what can be touched and what to avoid! 
In Tunisia, the zookeeper seemed fearless and knew just how to hold a scorpion 
while the scorpion held on tight to a pack of cigarettes, but none of us dared try! 
He also knew how to handle a deadly sidewinder… 
but nobody wanted to try that one, either! 
Of course, some critters seem more cuddly,
In fact, when it comes to camels, I like to ride them too! 
A well trained camel can take you for a pleasant ride down the streets in India. 
A well-trained elephant will let you pet him in the jungles of Nepal, 
or let you go for a ride (only with his mahout aboard, however!) 
Baby elephants are something else, though! 
They’re 250-pound characters who love to push you around if they can!!
I only dared touch this little playmate while he was distracted by someone else! 
Many creatures look almost irresistibly cuddly, like these monkeys, 
but monkeys are pickpockets with nasty bites, so I’ve been trained to keep my distance lest I lose my camera…or worse! 
Over the years, I’ve been able to see and hold many different creatures, 
but on our trip through the Panama Canal,
Snappy has been handled by this park ranger since his birth,
Alligators have a brain about as big as a pea, so most of what they do is instinctive. Nevertheless, we were back in America, so I figured they wouldn’t let us hold him unless it was relatively safe, and when they asked who would like to hold Snappy, I volunteered. 
Yes, being in America, they made it quite safe! Although the ranger hadn’t forewarned us, he put a big strap around Snappy’s mouth to keep him quiet. He was totally docile and let me hold him by his soft underbelly. 
Holding living creatures touches something deep inside me…a trust given to me to hold without hurting…not to break…and hopefully not to get hurt either. 
As we go through life, I hope we continue learning what is safe and what is not…
and just how close we can get to others without asking for trouble! 
But I hope we keep exploring and trying to connect, not only with critters, 
but with people! There’s a huge world out there full of people who’ve never heard the good news that Jesus came to set us free from sin and give us eternal life! 
Can we hold them so gently that we don’t hurt them?
Song of Solomon 8:6 “Jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” Fifteen years ago, when I wrote this commentary, I spent nearly a year on this verse alone, I guess because there was so much road repair that had to be done spiritually in my life in order to move on. I am reminded of the verses in Isaiah 62:10 and 40:3: “Prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people,” and, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” 
I had been moving along, trying to build a straight road for my Lord, when all of a sudden a found a huge boulder blocking the path! The stumbling stone was misplaced affection. I was expecting others to remain perfectly loyal to me through thick and thin, and I was allowing failure to unravel me. This is wrong.
The amazing thing is the power of sin to breed sin. Proverbs 6:24 reminds us that “jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.” If our eyes get off the Lord and on to our spouse, the partner’s failure is a tremendous catalyst for us to yield to some sin…be it unfaithfulness, or unholy anger, pride, hatred, revenge, or a host of other evils. “Be ye angry and sin not” (Ephesians 4:26). For years I was troubled by a spirit of jealousy (Numbers 5:14). 
Sometimes my jealousy was justified, and sometimes it was not, but it caused me constant pain, and my husband—for whatever reasons—was unwilling or unable to reassure me when I would doubt him. Truly, jealousy is cruel as the grave. The heat of it sparked in me a fire of wrath and hatred that I’ve never experienced in any other situation. It may seem a trite saying to repeat, “If you play with fire, you’re sure to get burned,” but jealousy is a wild fire which burns like Sheol…like the fires of hell…like the continuous burning, smoldering fires of gehenna, the garbage dump outside Jerusalem. “The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” Surrender your jealousy to God and make Him the center of your affections. If your love for everyone else is like “hatred” by comparison, then you’ll always be able to love God and others freely. But, if you allow any other person to become the focus of your greatest concern and attention, you will end up with a misplaced affection that robs you of peace and joy, and you will end up feeling volcanic anger toward the person you thought you “loved” when they fail you. God alone is the source of true love and the fountainhead of unsullied joy.
(P.S.—I’m happy to be able to share with you that today Alan and I are doing very well in our marriage. He is a loyal and reassuring husband, and I’m very glad to be married to him!)
Song of Solomon 8:5 “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”Are you feeling all clear and cheery today? No clouds in the sky of your heart? Or, are the clouds gone but you’re burning under the heat of the sun? You’ve laid your burden at the foot of the cross, but you’re still wandering through the wilderness?
Song of Solomon 8:5 “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” This is a magnificent verse. It is speaking—of course—of the bride. From whence is she coming? The wilderness. How is she coming? Is she alone? No, not at all. She is coming in the company of her beloved, enabled by his support.
At any rate, it took me many years, but I learned a very painful lesson. When we’re in the desert, we’re never going to survive unless we start taking one small step at a time…putting one foot in front of the other even if we’d really rather die and go to heaven. Nobody can do this for us. God wants us to lean on our Savior and walk out of the wilderness with him, but there are certain steps we have to take or we’ll never really get out.
*Finally, we have to start walking up and out of the wilderness, like someone who’s trying to recover from a broken leg (or for us older folks—a hip or knee replacement), leaning heavily on our beloved spiritual husband, Jesus Christ, for support. Slowly but surely, without even realizing it, we’ll start to heal and find joy again, but it comes from leaning on Jesus and communing with him with an iron-clad resolution to refuse looking back.
We got a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call today 
so we could get an early start to travel from Jerusalem to Masada. 
We stopped in En Gedi early enough to see Nubian Ibex
They graze and visit before they tour buses come through,
We had stayed near the Jaffa Gate (oldest gate) in Jerusalem. 
The drive from Jerusalem through the Judean wilderness to Masada took about two hours, and went we from +250 meters to -300 meters below sea level. 
We traveled early to escape the heat of the day, and it was still 105 degrees F. 
Masada is in the Judean desert overlooking the Dead Sea.
We’re still getting used to seeing the amount of automatic weapons in the hands of young adults, since the Israelis are compelled to be in the military after graduating from high school (boys for 3 years, girls for 2 years). Even when they’re not training, they still have their weapon with them.
So if they’re on a break,
We all took a cable car up, 
because the Snake Path walking trail was closed due to high temperatures. 
Masada (Hebrew metsudhah) means stronghold. 
King Herod the Great built the city and palaces for protection
75 years after Herod’s death, during the Great Revolt against the Roman Empire, the Zealots (Jewish rebels) ran away to the desert. It was a good place to hide
because of the challenge for the Romans to follow. (There were no stairs then!) 
960 Jewish people hid in Masada and used Herod’s stores of food. 
Herod had employed Roman architecture for the bathing rooms – cold room (frigidarium), warm room (tepidarium), hot room (caldarium) like our sauna. 
Everything below the black line is original archaeology. 
King David may have used this stronghold when fleeing enemies
The columns and colors are original, over 2000 years old!
Psalm 59:9, 16 (HCSB) -“I will keep watch for You, my strength, because God is my stronghold. But I will sing of Your strength and will joyfully proclaim Your faithful love in the morning. For You have been a stronghold for me, a refuge in my day of trouble.”
(Even the birds find shelter in the stronghold.) 
Psalm 62:1-2 – “I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him.
Mosaic floors were popular in Jewish art of the Herodian period. 
Byzantine West Gate Artifacts and archaeology
when the Jewish people chose mass suicide
It’s sobering to consider in whom or what we take refuge.
Where do you and I seek our strength?” 
(Overlooking the remains of the synagogue.)
Psalm 62:5-8 (HCSB) – “Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that].”
Summer Setting 
