Tenacious Pines and Stubborn Falls

My family and I spent the weekend enjoying nature this past weekend, and we hiked up Big Cottonwood Canyon to explore the majestic beauty of the mountains in the Wasatch Range.  One of the hikes that we explored was Donut Falls.  The Falls are surrounded by beautiful trees, mountainscapes and grandeur, but that's not what makes them special.   The water, over several hundred years, has cut an almost perfect circle in the middle of a wall of granite, thus the name Donut Falls.
This stubborn water, which collects together as run-off year after year, has eroded away the land enough so that it may run freely from the tops of the mountains to the valley below, unhindered and undeviating from its course.

While my family and I were marveling about the sheer power of the water that  kept flowing through the rock and the beautiful backdrop it created, I was reminded of another seemingly impossible task that nature has somehow overcome and how life has found a way to thrive in another hostile environment.

I'm referring to the Bristlecone Pines in Central Utah, some of the oldest trees in the entire world.

These are ugly, small trees whose roots are gnarled, needles are sharp, and live in the mountainous desert of Central Utah and Nevada.  Despite their appearance, these Bristlecones are among the oldest trees in the world, with an average age of about 1500 years.  These trees endure an environment consisting of harsh, windy winters and scorching summers. Little water, rocky soil, and constant extremes in temperature make it virtually impossible for any other plant life to survive, thus the Bristlecones are left with little competition for the scarce resources. The windblown trees are weathered and beaten by the climate, yet they survive year after year, and generation after generation. They thrive where no other plants can survive.

So my point is that despite our circumstances, and where we are in life, we can always choose how we will respond to life's difficulties.  And how we choose to respond to our challenges is a manifestation of our character.  We can be resilient, despite the challenges. It may take years to build up that resiliency, but we have the tools necessary for weathering life's storms and dead-ends.  We may end up ugly, windblown, and weathered down from exposure, but we know our roots are strong, thus we are able to survive anything. We can overcome any challenge, even if that means cutting through a wall of granite using nothing more than water and gravity.

C.S. Lewis once said, "Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature."  Water cuts a perfect hole in a solid wall of granite. Trees live for thousands of years in an environment that kills off all other vegetation.  Miracles happen everywhere, and it's the majesty of the Earth that never ceases to leave me in awe and be grateful that I can live amidst such beauty and share that grandeur with my children.