Experience God's creations

Yes, I have to admit it, I am a flatlander and I’m proud of it.

Chlastak

I grew up where alligators sun themselves on the bayous of Louisiana and where the Spanish moss hangs down from the tree and blows gracefully in the hot summer wind.

Until I was called to a church in Arkansas, the highest I had ever climbed was in a US Forest Service fire tower on Stink Creek near Bastrop, Louisiana and up Louisiana’s highest point, Mount Driskill.

You see, Mount Driskill is the highest natural peak in Louisiana, with a whopping elevation of 535 feet in Bienville Parish.

Over the course of my ministry career my wife and I have lived in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, the Appalachians Mountain of Virginia, and the Allegheny Mountain Range of western Virginia.

I have even attended a church meeting in Denver, Colorado and experienced the majesty of the Rockies Mountains.

Each of these are some of the beautiful places of God Creation.

But to say the least, the Ozark Mountains are a wonderful part of God’s Creation and they are so close for us to enjoy on a day trip basis.

They are right out our backdoor.

Poplar Bluff bills itself as the “Gateway to the Ozarks,” but it should be called “Gateway to God’s Creation.”

And I must admit, I’ve become truly smitten by God’s Creation in Southeast Missouri.

Where can you go, in a 90-plus mile radius where you can truly experience some of the wonders of God’s Creation?

We have so many wonderful day trips that we can take.

How many have experienced the sound of Big Spring in Carter County, or Greer Springs in Oregon County, Alley Spring, Welch Spring, Round Spring, Pulltight, Cave Spring, and Blue Spring of Shannon County?

Or take a cool dip on a hot summer’s day at Rocky Falls?

Closer to home we have Keener Spring and Markham Spring (old timers called it Bubble Spring because of the air bubbles that escaped from the sandy bottom of the spring.)

I almost forgot to mention Mammoth Spring in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas that has its beginnings in Grand Gulf State Park the (“Little Grand Canyon”), just west of Thayer, Missouri. There’s awesome trout fishing there!

Or how about the crystal clear waters of the Current and the Eleven Point Rivers and the many streams?

How many have dropped a fishing line in the Black River and pulled out a bass or a catfish?

I would be amiss if I didn’t mention just north of us we have Sam A Baker, Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, Elephant Rocks and many more wonderful places to find Sabbath.

I would encourage everyone to take advantage of what God has given us in our neck of the woods.

In the spring when the dogwoods, redbuds, wild plums and rhododendron are in full bloom is a wonderful time to take the family on a Sunday afternoon drive.

As an added bonus, you might see, beavers, wild turkeys, and occasional deer cross your path.

If you venture north around Eminence you might see the wild horses grazing in the pastures along the Jacks Fork River.

And oh, fall, with its reds, golds, oranges and hues of browns.

Some say, when you top a hill on Hwy 142, “You can see for miles and miles.”

God’s Word reminds us, that all of nature joins in the celebration of God’s Creations.

“…the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into joy, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12

Now, I know many would say that the Ozarks are just hills compared to the Rockies of the west.

But I love the “mountain hills” of Southeast Missouri.

One of my favorite is a Poem by James Weldon Johnson, entitled, “The Creation.”

I close with an excerpt:

Then God himself stepped down--

And the sun was on his right hand,

And the moon was on his left;

The stars were clustered about his head,

And the earth was under his feet.

And God walked, and where he trod

His footsteps hollowed the valleys out

And bulged the mountains up.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground ‘land,’ and the gathered waters he called ‘seas.’ And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:9-10

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Rev. Chlastak is a graduate of Northeast Louisiana University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and has served congregations of the Christian Church in Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia, Oklahoma and Missouri.