Colossians 3:2 "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." NIV
I am a great fan of history as is my sweetheart. We love finding out the details of events we only glossed over while in school. I must admit that I never did connect the story of Lewis and Clark with the arch in St Louis. Actually it's called The Gateway Arch and it is a part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The entire complex is to commemorate the westward expansion, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Louisiana Purchase, the Dred Scott case, and the first civil government west of the Mississippi. We were limited in time so we chose to visit the Arch. From a distance it doesn't look all that imposing. You can see it behind sweetheart in the picture. However, when you get up close, it seems to soar up to the heavens.
It draws your eyes upwards in a sweeping line across the heavens. It's stainless steel surface gleams and shimmers in the light. It looks so thin and delicate and yet it is hides inside it's shell an elevator to the top. Strangely you have to go underground to get into the elevator. If you are claustrophobic this is not the ride for you! A little shell that seats 5 and is only 4 feet tall and 6 feet wide is your vehicle to the sky. It was interesting to watch sweetheart get into the egg with his six foot plus self.
The ride to the top takes 4 minutes. Strangely the ride to the bottom takes 3 minutes but I didn't ask. It is an elevator style ride but it has to keep adjusting for the angle of the arch. It was a pretty long 4 minutes so everyone talks nervously the entire time. From the top you can pretty much see most of St Louis and the Missouri River. The view was spectacular. The windows lean outward and you look straight down from edge. I couldn't get enough of the view. I kept looking up higher instead of down to the ground. The sky seemed so close and the clouds looked like cotton balls that you could just reach out and touch.
From up high the world and everyone in it seems so insignificant. You can kind of imagine it as what our Abba sees when He looks down on us. Little buildings, little bridges, little cars, tiny people. All rushing around, never looking up, never remembering that in the big picture, we are just a tiny part of a big wide world. I thought about all the people who were on the ground who didn't even realize that I was watching them from my perch high above the earth. I thought about how we are often just like that. Forgetting about the One that watches over us, always looking at us, always watching us. How His view is all encompassing, all seeing, all knowing.
The arch is called The Gateway Arch. My first thought was the scripture Matt 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it." NIV I have no idea why that scripture popped into my mind when I saw this beautiful memorial. Sometimes my Abba whispers the strangest things to my heart. Of course this gateway didn't lead to destruction!! It commemorates the gateway to the west. The beginning of the expansion of our country. It stands as a symbol of our desire to constantly be moving forward. To explore and find all the marvels and majesty of this beautiful country that our Father gave us. But although this gateway is magnificent and beautiful on the outside, I had to ride in the cramped, small, narrow, confining elevator to the top in order to see the true beauty of the monument. Kind of like that scripture. It's easy to get lost in the big, wide world and the material things that come with outward beauty. To see the true value of the gateway arch, I had to endure an uncomfortable time. Life is a lot like my visit to this arch. There is so much beauty in life. So much to see on the outside. But the true value and vision comes from enduring the uncomfortable and making it to the top. I pray that my Abba will keep whispering to my heart the scriptures that seem to make no sense until I stop and really ponder them. And that He will keep giving me the chance to see the beautiful at the end of an uncomfortable ride!
The ride to the top takes 4 minutes. Strangely the ride to the bottom takes 3 minutes but I didn't ask. It is an elevator style ride but it has to keep adjusting for the angle of the arch. It was a pretty long 4 minutes so everyone talks nervously the entire time. From the top you can pretty much see most of St Louis and the Missouri River. The view was spectacular. The windows lean outward and you look straight down from edge. I couldn't get enough of the view. I kept looking up higher instead of down to the ground. The sky seemed so close and the clouds looked like cotton balls that you could just reach out and touch.
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