Many years ago I was riding my motorcycle across southern Saskatchewan. I’d left the trans-Canada highway, and was riding about as far south as you can go in Saskatchewan, parallel with the US/Canada border. At one point I came to the top of a rise, pulled over to the dirt shoulder, took off my helmet, and just sat there looking at the incredible scenery around me.
I could see grassland and farmland for miles on every side. The wind was playing in the fields, moving waves of shadows, seeming to talk and laugh to itself as it went. And the sky, well I’ve never seen a more amazing sky in my life…from horizon to horizon a blue so thick it must have ended in heaven.
I think I have never been more at peace than I was at that moment.
When I think back three things come to mind:
- Southern Saskatchewan is pure. It’s not raw, it’s not simple, it’s pure. When God made the earth, He made some places where you can see His principles, rules and cycles of nature right on the surface. Southern Saskatchewan is one of those places. You can’t fake life here like in big cities or crowded countrysides. Here, you either do it the right way, or it just won’t work. Ask any farmer or rancher. You have to follow God’s laws or you fail. God quickly shows you where you are going wrong, and there’s no point in arguing because you are going to lose the argument. Like I said, it’s pure here. Pure to the core. Purity that takes no prisoners. There’s no consensus. There’s only God’s way.
- The wind will tell you. Sometimes it’s just a breeze, shushing through the fields, laughing and talking to itself, and sometimes whispering to you just on the edge of awareness. And then sometimes it’s a strong wind, a wind that stops talking and just shows you who’s boss. It picks up whatever isn’t tied down, and scatters it all over the place, reminding us that one day it will make those western mountains as flat as the prairie. Did you ever wonder why life is so hard? The wind tells you. The wind shows you. It tears things apart, wears things out, breaks things down. All to remind you that God made the universe in a way that one day everything will wear out, and if we want to survive we have to work against that. And battling every day against the break down of the universe is hard. Really hard. Why did He make it that way? To show us that He made us. There is no way that a universe that is always breaking down can ‘accidently’ make living things that need to build things up in order to survive. God made us, and the Saskatchewan wind is there to remind us every day.
- The sky is for the strong. That wide, deep sky that brings each season of cold, wet, hot, and dry, with too much of each one in its turn, can only be loved by people who know who they are. You have to be at one with yourself to feel comfortable under that sky. I heard stories of old times where people were migrating to the west in their wagon trains, but when some of them saw that big sky, they turned around. It was too much for them. That sky that brings so much sunshine, but also wicked storms and brutal cold. That sky that lets you see pretty much every star in the universe, but also blankets the land in pitch darkness when the clouds hang deep and low. That sky that is a huge lens that God looks through to see the land and people He loves. There is no hiding from God in southern Saskatchewan.
In all the years that have passed, I’ve never been back. I think, though, it will soon be time to go. There must be no more hiding.
Peace be with you.
Peace Be With You 