We are driving through west Texas on our way to Colorado. To get to this part of the state, we need to drive about a day! (Going from our part of TX to the southern tip takes even longer!) It is a portion of West TX that is located between Wichita Falls, TX and up into the TX panhandle. Let me describe it: hot, HOT, dry, scrubby (the trees are all stunted, we don’t see any of those 20 foot tall oaks like we have in east TX) and mostly flat…with a few rolling hills. Most of the buildings we pass look old and weathered by the extreme elements.
We just drove on a bridge over the Red River. There was no water to be seen! All we saw was dry, red dust! It looked like a dirt road. (Except for the bridge that was over it!) We see a lot of old…very old barns with silos that would never be able to hold much of anything. They are just too holey! There are quite a few buildings left to rot and die. It looks like no one cared enough to put them out of their misery.
MILES OF DESOLATION
But most of all, there are miles and miles and MILES of nothing and nobody! No, it wouldn’t be my cup of tea. But some people love having lots of space and don’t mind the sparseness of the color green to say nothing of the absence of flowers. Do you want shade? Then don’t come here. Trees are few and far between…and short.
This part of Texas looks much more like my original concept of Texas (from the western movies) than the part where we live–the piney woods section of Texas. Our area looks like many parts of the south. Our soil is a gardner’s dream. Roses and azaleas tend to flourish…and we have festivals to celebrate that fact and attract tourists. We have not only pine trees, but most other types of trees as well. If you were to look at our neighborhood from the google satellite, you would see trees and more trees. Very few of the houses would even show!
As I have thought about a word to describe this part of the state, I think desolation is a very good word. It’s interesting to see the cows eating grass. It looks brown! They seem to be staying alive, don’t know how. It was interesting as we moved further down the road to an area that, if anything, may have looked even more brown than the earlier area…naturally.
GROWTH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT
But, there were lots of green areas there too. Why? The area was irrigated. There were acres and acres of corn…surrounded by desolation! So interesting to see this part of the panhandle where it is extremely dry…but with irrigation, they are able to have acres of crops that produce crops.
I kept being impressed with the object lesson blasting me in the face! Naturally, my life is desolate…the color of dead, brown grass in the middle of a summer drought. Christ, the Living Water, has provided a way for my life to produce fruit…to become a lush green garden in the middle of a desert!
Amazing Grace.
written while we were traveling last week.
