“Where are the arches?”

Saturday morning, I was frustrated! The frustration began building Friday night as I tried to buy the required time ticket to enter Arches National Park for Saturday. So, on Saturday morning, I got in line with the cars who did have tickets to ask for help. The park ranger was sympathetic, but with the long line of “parkers” behind me, she had little help with my dilemma.

I decided to go to the neighboring Canyonlands National Park. It is my practice to go to the visitor center of every park I visit. As I was paying for my T-shirt, I mentioned my difficulty. The lady stopped the transition and offered to help me get a time slot for Arches by asking, “When do you want to go in?” “As early as possible! I would really like to get in for sunrise.” She announced, “You don’t need a time ticket until seven. You can go in any time before seven.”

Problem solved! Frustration eradicated!

Sunday morning, at 5:45, I was gliding by the ticket booth entrance as happy as a beaver in a willow pond. Arches National Park has a main road that wanders through the park, with several shorter side roads leading to its many vistas. I went to the end of the road, got the pictures I wanted, and started meandering my way back out of the park.

There were very few other sightseers on the road. Stopping on the side of the road to set up and capture my picture was not a problem.  At the Sand Dune Arch, I was doing my photographer impersonation when a car slowly rolled to a stop beside me. The windows were down, and the mid-forties couple asked me, “Where are the arches?”

Mind you, we are nearly at the end of the road running into the park. They had driven several miles without seeing the park’s very namesake! I gave them my official park map, and they drove on.

That was no chance encounter for me. I was happy to help fellow explorers and continued to ponder their question on a mega “whole life” metaphysical scale. 

Over the last two decades, I have observed the growing fascination with and a request for God’s “blessing.” Blessings seem to mean moments or events where God does something that enriches someone’s life experience and makes them happy. That searching can’t be faulted or denied. He does bless His creation. But when no obvious or hidden blessing is apparent, “Where are the arches?” When the blessings of God are not apparent or obvious, do we need to ask God for them? Is He reluctant to “bless” us and must be persuaded to enrich our lives with blessings, with warm and fuzzy “feel-goods?” The Beach Boys had a hit back in the mid-1960s that I still enjoy listening to. “Good Vibrations.”

I have wondered in many “prayer meetings” if that is what we are requesting from God, “good vibrations.”  A life context that is abundant with “feel goods.” Sometimes, I wonder if our prayer lives are mostly about requesting to thrill us with sensations that allow us to believe that our lives are significant, that our attitudes are acceptable, and that we are worthy.

We travel through our presumed Garden of Eden lives, pleading with God to anoint our positions and dispositions with His pseudo-special oil, allowing us to easily slip through our troubles. Our troubles should remind us that we are living outside the Garden of Eden, where the ground is cursed and living is toil.

We often do not see the blessings because we are more interested in finding “a blessing” rather than “the Blessing, ” or the One who blesses. The prophet Jeremiah gives us what he found to be true about seeking blessings.

 “Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13, Amplified Version)

Here is your map to find the “arches.” They are not always visible in our normal, status quo life. God doesn’t do anything special to “bless” us. He is the blessing! And He is everywhere and in everything. God doesn’t interject blessings into our lives; He baptizes (saturates) us with His blessed presence. Wherever God is, there is blessing. Not to notice and be amazed by them can only be attributed to a self-baptism, a self-saturation.

When we choose to live a life that is driven “with a deep longing” and “requires Me as a vital necessity,” our Father who is in heaven, has promised that He will be found by us.

The “map” has been given to us. But we must open and use it. That map is first the Bible, followed by communication with Him, and in joining a pod of His People. To the extent that we ignore any one of these aspects of our environment, we will not see the blessings our God has already provided for our enrichment.

Photo – This picture is from this past May at Arches National Park. I am working my way north to south on US Hwy 89. This trip was part two.