Driving home from Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon, Hylan noticed a car that had two seemingly opposing bumper stickers: one declared, “Atheist,” and the other declared support for “McCain/Palin.” Hylan made a comment about how perplexing that was to him.
Yes, I guess that is, I thought to myself, but the correlation wasn’t as much a conundrum to me as the single bumper sticker that declared, “Atheist.”
With no room for a doubting Thomas in our car, since we were coming home from a session of
LDS General Conference, the sticker sparked a conversation. I said to Hylan, “People who claim to be atheists must never go on hikes.” Then I explained how I can’t understand how one couldn’t feel close to the Divine when out in a peaceful and beautiful natural setting a part from the hustle and bustle of a busy world. One may not know how to describe it, but there is no doubting a Supreme Being.
I recently found a brand
new hike that is the most gorgeous of all the hikes I’ve recently gone on. It’s filled with rocks and rills, trees and hills, colors and a beautiful ever changing mountainous terrain. When I discover new parts of the earth to explore, it immediately inspires a prayer of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for giving me such a lovely place to live. No matter how far the stock market dips, or who becomes President of the U.S.A., I know that under His direction, Jesus Christ created this earth, and we can feel Their love in doing something as simple as taking a hike!
"All things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth" (Moses 6:63).
Everyone certainly has a right to their own opinions, especially in such a blessed place like America, and I also recognize that I have been blessed with an abundant amount of faith, but I just don’t think that those who claim no belief in God ever take hikes.
It reminds me of a song by one of my favorite artists, India Arie called, “God is Real.” Go
here to hear a clip of the song and click on track 15.
The sweetest honey to the brightest flower
The largest planet to the smallest atom
Snowflakes and the bird kingdom
Smaller than the eye can see bigger then the mind can conceive
Heard a man on the radio today
(spoken) i mean I’m not going to believe in anything that I can’t see and i’ve been through a lot of hardships in my life ya know ya know in my life
Must confess I disagreed with what he had to say
How he could he not believe that God is real
I don’t understand how
He could feel that way
When there’s earth, air, water, and fire
So many different flowers
Sunshine and rain showers
So many different crystals
And hills and volcanoes
Chorus
That’s how I know that God is real
All of this is not by chance
That’s how I know that God is real
All of this is not by chance
That’s how I know that God is real
I know this is not by chance
That’s how I know that God is real
That’s how I know that God is real
In St. Lucia I jumped in the water
(spoken)it was like I was seeing it for the first time. I mean it literally changed my life.
For the first time I understood its power
As I swam I was cleaned
If I had any doubts
This experience cleared them
Now I know for sure that God is real
I know that it’s the truth
By the way it feels
Cause I saw starfish and sponges
Fish shaped like trumpets
So many different colors
I stayed out there for hours
and I only saw a fraction of a fraction of the
deepest of the deep of the great blue wide
It brought a tear to my eye
Chorus
We’re made of the same stuff
As the moon and the stars
The ocean's saltwater just like my tears are
You feel me
The sun rises and sets everyday without fail
Chorus
That's my story and I'm sticking to it! :)
