Posted on October 9, 2015
Picking Through Gray Days – And Finding Treasure
This poem uses a personal reflection of delicate work on fossils to illustrate points about work, success, and life in general. It’s written from the author’s experience working on fossil field jackets – essentially big chunks of rock brought back from a dig site (read more field jackets here). Specifically, it’s about two field jackets of shale from western Kansas – you can read all about the Kansas digs here. Enjoy!
Chip, chip, chip one tiny bit at a time
The gray, dusty work inside
On frail, layered rock sublime
Is like the dry, cloudy day just outside.
~~~~~~~
Flakes fly when the chisel hits on the rock,
Look for fossils just below
Be so careful not to knock
Out of place a treasure that’s yet unknown.
~~~~~~~
Some work done with power tool buzz and grind,
Some with frigid hands all numb
Dry from winter air unkind
Yet the goal of noble work overcomes
~~~~~~~
The work is insipid yet very grand
Small, elusive fish scales shine
Pale chalk powders root strands*
But found no great fossil as rock’s refined
~~~~~~~
The end and beginning both were well known
And mystery lay between
But now empty rock is shown
With no more big fossils but those foreseen
~~~~~~~
Was the slow, cold labor all done in vain?
Were great fossils the sole aim?
Nay! The journey is all gain
It was a rare lesson to all who came
~~~~~~~
When our work is finished at end of day
Not task success or talent,
But those faithful who obey
That the greatest Master sees most gallant
~~~~~~~
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, October 2015
*strands of plant roots, coated in a powdery chalk are often found between the layers of Kansas shale
Posted on October 2, 2015
Splendorous Swans
“Look kids! I think that might be a swan with her babies!” I exclaimed, pointing across the pond. My young companions and I wandered around the pond to get a closer look. Sure enough, it was large, graceful white mother swan with her five grayish-brown young. I couldn’t remember ever having seen a swan in person before, though perhaps at a zoo once. It reminded me of a description in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books I read many times over as a child, when Pa accidentally shot a swan in By the Shores of Silver Lake. We watched the swans for quite a while, noticing several odd habits this beautiful bird had and wondering why.
There are several different types of swans, including the Trumpeter and Tundra swans that are native to North America. The ones I saw with my young friends are Mute Swans, classified as Cygnus Olor, that were originally brought over from Europe and later spread to the wild, mostly in the eastern/northeastern states. Mute Swans, though quiet, aren’t really completely mute – they don’t make the same call that a Trumpeter does, but they do sometimes make various snorting, growling, hissing, barking noises and rarely a trumpeting call. These birds are among the largest waterfowl in North America, almost the same size as the Trumpeter Swan, as adults can weigh close to thirty pounds and their wingspan can be over seven feet long. On average, they live about twelve years.
Mute Swans with their beautiful, S-curved neck and distinguishing black knob near their forehead, just above the orange bill, are often depicted in art. In North America, these swans are fairly controversial because they can be destructive to an ecosystem and tend to be unusually territorial, driving away other birds. I kept those kids close, making them back away from the pond when we saw the mother go on a surprising high-speed chase to get a duck. We watched the duck try to hide under water, to no avail. It finally got away by squeezing between the rungs of the fence surrounding the pond.
Swans seem to have fairly strong family units. The cob (male) and pen (female, like “hen”) mate for life; sometimes they find a new mate if the other dies. They usually choose to build their nest close to where the pen hatched. The pen sets builds the nest, usually on shallow water or an island, while the cob gathers materials. They work together to protect and feed the family, even staggering molting between male and female so that one is always fully able to protect their offspring. The pen usually lays about 5-7 eggs, sometimes more, hatching as the gray-brown baby swans, called cygnets, so different from their graceful white parents. It takes about 4-5 months for the cygnets to mature, and after spending their first winter with their parents will be sent off on their own, usually staying with siblings for a while. They generally find mates around the time they’re two and have their first nesting around the time they’re three or four.
One of the kids pointed out the odd way one of the babies, a cygnet, was holding one foot in an odd position out of the water. At first we wondered if it had a hurt or broken foot, but later noticed some of the other babies and the mother doing the same thing, sometimes holding one foot out of the water and sometimes the other. Why do they hold one foot in such a strange, painful looking way? The most likely reason is to help regulate their body temperatures. Ducks, geese, and swans often live in cold environments, and though they have warm, feathered coats are often seen standing on ice or snow with their “bare feet”. You might think they get cold or get frostbite, but they don’t because of the special way God designed their feet and blood flow. The arteries carrying warm blood to the feet and the veins carrying cooler blood back to the heart are interwoven in such a way that the temperature between the two evens out so that they are nearly the same temperature. This keeps the bird from losing much heat energy at all in its feet – it actually loses more heat through its feathers! Also duck, goose, and swan feet don’t have much soft tissue or muscle requiring a lot of warm blood. It truly is amazing the way God created creatures in such a way that they will be provided for and protected – He does the same for us, too!
Article and all photos copyright Sara J. Bruegel, 2015
References:
- The Trumpeter Swan Society, “The Trumpeter Swan”, by Sumner Matteson, Scott Craven and Donna Compton,G3647, University of Wisconson, 1995 http://www.trumpeterswansociety.org/docs/WI2Trumpeter_Swans.pdf
- Auduborn Guide to North American Birds, “Mute Swan, Cygnus Olor”, by Kenn Kaufman http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/mute-swan
- “Introduced Species Summary Project, Mute Swan”, by Meredith Walsh, 2004, Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Cygnus_olor.html
- “Why do some swans only paddle with one leg, with the other leg tucked up under the wing?” by Katherine Stevenson, 2007, “Ask an Expert”, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/expert/previous/swanslegs.aspx
- Ask a Naturalist.com, “Why Don’t Ducks’ Feet Freeze?”, by Tom Pellitier, 2010 http://askanaturalist.com/why-don%E2%80%99t-ducks%E2%80%99-feet-freeze/
- The Swan Sanctuary, United Kindom, “Frequently Asked Questions” http://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/faq.php
- Dr. Don DeYoung, “Cold Feet”, Answers Magazine, Vol. 10 No. 4, October-December 2015. Pg. 42
Posted on September 25, 2015
Created for His Presence
The setting sun lit up western clouds in fiery reds and oranges, contrasting beautifully with the deepening blue of the surrounding sky. A soft September breeze rippled through my loose hair as I slowly walked onward, quietly contemplating the things I saw around me: the tall and elegant curtains in the middle of a barren, empty lot; the small scrap of pure white fabric in my hand; the piece of wood I had watched burn after throwing it into the fire; the brass basin of water . . . A couple of weeks ago, there was a traveling life-sized replica of the Biblical wilderness tabernacle (the one that God instructed Moses to build) visiting my area* that I saw.
As I walked through the replica, feeling the sandy soil around my flip-flops I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a little like what walking in the “outer courts” would have been like for the Israelites as they wandered through the desert. The farther I went into the tabernacle replica, the farther back in time my thoughts went – not just to the stories of Moses and the Israelites, but all the way back to the very first people, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The “Holiest of Holies” was the core of the tabernacle because it was where the Ark of the Covenant – the presence of God – stayed, close to where the people camped, but with respectful boundaries.
What does the presence of God in the “Holiest of Holies” have to do with Adam and Eve? Adam and Eve were created to have a real, personal relationship with God, loving Him, being loved by Him, glorifying Him, and living with Him. When you love someone, you (generally) want to be around that person and you want to know what’s going on in his or her life – even the little details about daily struggles or funny things that happened that day. The same is true with God. He wants to walk through the day with us and He wants us to converse with Him. But, there’s a big, nasty problem that comes between an individual person and God – sin.
The point of the Bible is not really to give us “three simple steps for not going to Hell”, but to guide us on how to have that real, intimate relationship with God (being in the “Holiest of Holies”) that we were created to have. Following rules doesn’t make a relationship – rather, the desire to obey flows from a relationship of love and respect.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” ~Jeremiah 31:33 (see also Heb. 10:16)
In our sin-corrupted world, there are sometimes things that make us hesitate at entering into the “Holiest of Holies” through the veil that was torn when Christ was crucified. Sometimes entering into the holy Presence of our all-powerful Creator can be a scary thought – I’ll occasionally find myself wondering, “What crazy thing is He going to ask me to do next?” Often, our hesitations are rooted in a lack of trust. Just as Eve was deceived in the Garden, all of us probably have or will at some point be deceived and get our trust betrayed. While forgiveness can be hard, restoring trust after having been lied to is an entirely different challenge, making it easy to feel like we can’t trust anyone – even God. But, boiling it down logically, you have to trust someone, and since you can’t trust yourself (the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked) or others, the most reasonable thing to do is trust God. Don’t hesitate – enter into the “Holiest of Holies” and dwell in the Presence of God each moment of every day!
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh . . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrew 10:19-22 (NKJV)
*This was the “Tabernacle Experience” – more information about this and where all it travels at: http://tabernacleexperience.com/
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, September 2015
Posted on September 18, 2015
Ancient Buried Landscapes & The Flood
During a somewhat intense moment swimming through the deep frigid waters of a dark cave, I noticed the rotten-egg smell of sulfur. I couldn’t help but think of what that sulfur I smelled might indicate about the formation of this cave, even as I worked through this difficult passage. In the past few weeks I’ve written quite a bit about Park’s Ranch Cave and my recent experiences there – I told the story of my experience going through this cave in “Through Deep Waters – Caving Adventure”; we talked about the basic landscape and geology of the region in “Park’s Ranch Cave – Part 1”; we discussed how this cave might have formed and what it has to do with the Biblical global flood in “Park’s Ranch Cave – Part 2”. There’s a little more to the science surrounding Park’s Ranch, and caves in general, that I’d like us to explore before we leave this adventure behind us.
Previously, I explained how Park’s Ranch Cave and the surrounding area is part of karst landscape, which is essentially a natural drainage system that has many features caused by the dissolving of certain types of rocks. Karst features are all about the draining of water off land surfaces; caves, sinkholes, and many other smaller features (called “karren”) are all evidence of a karst landscape. Many geologists who believe earth to be billions of years old will point to “paleokarsts” as evidence that long periods of time passed between rock layers – rock layers that are generally better explained by a catastrophic global flood. They like the idea of various fossil karst features that would have taken long time periods to be slowly formed by being dissolved by water draining over many years.
There are several big problems with these “paleokarsts” that make them all quite questionable when you look a little closer. Let’s look at one karst feature in particular – dolines. A doline is a shallow dent in the ground that is usually funnel-shaped and is usually formed when limestone dissolves in a karst landscape. Evidence for one supposed “paleokarst” in the “Gonnesa Formation” includes features that look like our modern dolines. However, there isn’t enough other evidence for a karst in this area, and the doline-like formations are found in several parts throughout a layer that is not interrupted with other erosion – that’s a big problem for a landscape that should form all those features closer to the same level.
While there are many other problems with rock features that are thought to be part of a “paleokarst” the gist of it is that there isn’t enough evidence to support the idea of a draining landscape. Even if there were more evidence, a true ancient karst formation would not be preserved because close to the surface it would get changed by modern water drainage, and lower down the heat and pressure would ruin the signs of a karst beyond recognition. Most of these fishy “paleokarsts” probably aren’t genuine karst formations.
You may be wondering what made these formations, like the ones that look similar to dolines, if not draining waters of a karst landscape. The science involved in the Biblical global flood holds a much more clear explanation for these features. Many of the formations thought to be “paleokarst” features are better explained as being formed by gasses and water seeping out of surrounding layers during and shortly after the flood while the layers were still fairly soft. In Park’s Ranch Cave, I smelled sulfur. The oil in the layers in the area below Park’s Ranch would have seeped out certain gasses containing sulfur. Those gasses would have significantly helped carve out Park’s Ranch Cave. Karst formations and caves can get pretty complex, but the Bible has the key to the most logical scientific explanation: the global flood. Our lives can get pretty complex and confusing too – when in doubt, go back to the Bible, read it simply as written and apply it.
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, September 2015
References:
- Emil Silvestru. “The Riddle of the Paleokarst Solved”. Journal of Creation, 15 (3): pg. 105-114. December 2001. Creation Ministries International. Last accessed 9-11-2015. http://creation.com/the-riddle-of-paleokarst-solved
- “THE GYPSUM KARST PLAIN AND THE CASTILE FORMATION” by Jason M. Richards. Canyons & Caves. Issue No. 22 – Autumn 2001, Newsletter from the Resources. Stewardship & Science Division. Carlsbad Caverns National Park http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/upload/c&c22.pdf
- Steve Austin. 1980. Origin of Limestone Caves. Acts & Facts. 9 (1). http://www.icr.org/article/origin-limestone-caves
- Kevin W. Stafford. “Evaporite Karst and Hydrogeology of the Castile Formation: Culberson County, Texas and Eddy County, New Mexico”. Pg 123-131. 2013. 13th Sinkhole Conference, NCKRI Symposium 2. Department of Geology, Stephen F. Austin Sate University. Nacogdoches, Texas. Last accessed 9-11-15: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1120&context=sinkhole_2013
Updated on April 11, 2018
Cool Chemistry – Creation Clues for Kids Vol. 4 No. 3
Amazing Chemistry
Have you ever made a miniature volcano, mixing together baking soda and vinegar to create bubbly, explosive “lava”? Maybe you have watched or done a more dangerous explosion in the backyard by dropping Mentos candy into Diet Coke (Note: DO NOT do this without an adult). Either way, you find that putting together two perfectly normal things around the house can make a big mess very quickly. The things that make up the world around us, and how those things interact are what chemistry is all about.
Atoms
What do you think of when you see the word atom? Do you think it sounds a little like “Adam”, the first person God created when He made everything? Adam was the first person, so that would mean he is your great-great-great-great-great-(a bunch more greats) grandfather! God made one person, Adam, and then he made Adam’s wife, Eve, from one of Adam’s ribs. Later they had kids (making a family) and their kids had families that eventually spread all over the earth, gathering into cities and nations. Adam was the first individual person – families, communities, cities, and nations are made up of individual people. Atoms are super tiny individual pieces (so small you can’t even see one with the most powerful microscopes) that join into molecules that build into everything around us – a table, your drink, your body, the air you breath, and anything else you can think of!
Atoms are the building blocks of everything – both living and non-living. They make up everything
Elements
Elements are just different types of atoms that join together to make different chemicals and build up everything. You have probably heard the names of a few elements – maybe Oxygen, Carbon, Nickel, Chlorine, Sodium, Helium, or Krypton. There are some elements you can’t live with and some you can’t live without. Some are extremely common on earth and there are others that we know are out there, but haven’t really “found” yet.
The Periodic Table of Elements was made by a man named Dmitri Mendeleev as a way of organizing all the elements (different types of atoms)
Stardust?
Have you ever heard someone say that you are made of stardust – the mess an old, exploded star made in space long ago? That is just a made-up story, not at all supported by the way things work in science. There are a lot of people who believe and tell lies like this, thinking that our universe began to form with a “Big Bang” billions of years ago, and that all the elements and atoms we have today came from exploding stars. But there are a lot of big problems with these ideas. We know that stars were not made billions of years ago because the Bible says that God “created the stars also” on day four of creation. He created the stars after He made the earth, land, sea, and even plants (of course, all of those things are made of atoms)! The Bible never changes and God can’t lie – the ideas of other people will change or be false, but never God’s Word.
When a star explodes, it’s called a supernova. Giant clouds of space dust and debris, called nebula, make beautiful shapes (like the “Eagle Nebula” and ”Butterfly Nebula”) that can be seen with high-power telescopes
Star Factories
Stars are made of mostly the “smaller” types of atoms (compared to other atoms) like helium and hydrogen along with some other “heavier” elements mixed in. People who believe in the “Big Bang” say that it created stars of just helium and hydrogen first and that reactions inside those stars and their explosions would combine these lighter atoms, making them into bigger, heavier atoms. That’s a nice idea, and could almost work for a little while – but hydrogen and helium will not get us very far before we start running into a bunch of dead ends. You see, we can’t make all the different types of atoms – all the elements – from just hydrogen and helium.
Not all the elements can be made from just hydrogen and helium, but there are scientists who are testing some ideas and think that all the elements can be made from water. Notice how water is mentioned at the beginning of creation, in Genesis 1
Tiny Details
God didn’t just make the world like you or I might make a craft project. You must have supplies like paper and glue to make a craft. God made His own supplies – we can’t! God carefully created even the tiniest pieces of the things that make up our world. There tons of details in atoms that have to be perfect. God cares about even the small details of your life, too.
Thoughts From Readers
CCK is written by Sara J. Bruegel. Cartoon drawn by Eliza Haley. If you have a question, comment, cartoon, or drawing about God’s creation that you would like to share, please write to Sara at: CreationCluesForKids@gmail.com and it may get published in the next issue. Also, you can visit www.CreationClues.com to read a new clue each week or read & print past issues of CCK.
We encourage you to print as many copies as you like for yourself, friends, church, private school, ministry, or other groups, free of charge. All we ask is that you respect the author’s copyright by 1)giving full credit to the author, 2)DO NOT charge for this newsletter or in any way try to make money off of Creation Clues for Kids, and 3) DO NOT change any of the content
This is the July-September 2015 Issue – Vol. 4 No. 3
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Posted on September 11, 2015
Park’s Ranch Cave – Part 2
The light from my headlamp bounced across the dark cave wall, making the microscopic white crystals glisten. Before I got there, I had imagined that crawling through small spaces and swimming through the deep water of Park’s Ranch cave while caving would be quite terrifying. After all, I had been nervous going into Carlsbad Caverns (a huge, civilized cave) several years before and Park’s Ranch is considerably smaller and physically much more intense to go through. However, it ended up being much brighter and more beautiful than I had expected which made for a generally cheerful journey; even through the dramatic rough spots (more about those rough spots here). Besides light-hearted company, I think that the sparkling dirty-white gypsum rock the cave is carved out of was a large part of the pleasant atmosphere in this cave. I loved to touch the relatively soft gypsum cave walls as I caught my balance. I was mesmerized by horizontally-striped patterns I passed.
Gypsum is really an amazing mineral that can come in several different forms. It’s what builders use in the sheetrock walls of a house. If you’ve ever seen a hole broken into a wall (or made one) you would notice the powdery-white gypsum inside. I frequently use gypsum as plaster powder when working on fossils and making fossil replicas (more about that here). It is also considered a very soft mineral that can be scratched with your fingernail. You may have heard that diamonds will cut anything because they are the hardest mineral, classified as a 10 on the Mohs Scale of hardness for minerals. Compare that to gypsum, which is about a 2 on the Mohs Scale.
Park’s Ranch Cave is carved out of the gypsum of the Castile Formation, which is classified as part of the Permian rock unit that is best explained as being laid down during the Biblical global flood. The flood would explain where the rock layers came from, but figuring out how exactly the cave was cut into these layers can be pretty complex. One of the main processes that carve out caves like this is when water combines with other chemicals (especially acids, including carbon dioxide reacted with water) to dissolve rock.
There are at least eight different chemical factors that contribute to how long it takes a cave to get carved out. They can vary quite a bit and are often difficult (some perhaps humanly impossible at this time) to measure and can vary a lot over time and in different locations within the cave. It’s like trying to mathematically solve for “X” in an algebra equation that has X,Y, and Z – there are just too many unknowns to figure out the answer unless you get more information. It doesn’t take slow processes over long periods of time to make a cave – it just takes the right chemical conditions. Actually, there are chemical calculations based off observed scientific data that seem to indicate long periods of time would be destructive to a cave.
As the waters from the global flood drained off the continents, some of the water would have been trapped in the still-soft Castile formation as well as many other formations around the area, like the Bell Canyon and Cherry Canyon formations that lie beneath the Castile. As the plate tectonics caused earthquakes, mountain building, volcanoes, bending strata, uplifts, etc. during and for a short time after the flood, it would have caused small openings to form and the water in the layers below to be squeezed out. A lot of those waters would have contained decaying material and chemicals from the dead creatures and plants in the layers below, which would have contributed to the dissolving of the rock that goes into carving the cave. You don’t have to have long periods of time to explain how Park’s Ranch Cave was formed – it’s just all about the water, chemical conditions, and plate tectonics involved in the global flood and shortly after. (Read Part 1 of this article here)
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, September 2015
- “THE GYPSUM KARST PLAIN AND THE CASTILE FORMATION” by Jason M. Richards. Canyons & Caves. Issue No. 22 – Autumn 2001, Newsletter from the Resources. Stewardship & Science Division. Carlsbad Caverns National Park http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/upload/c&c22.pdf
- Steve Austin. 1980. Origin of Limestone Caves. Acts & Facts. 9 (1). http://www.icr.org/article/origin-limestone-caves
- Kevin W. Stafford. “Evaporite Karst and Hydrogeology of the Castile Formation: Culberson County, Texas and Eddy County, New Mexico”. Pg 123-131. 2013. 13th Sinkhole Conference, NCKRI Symposium 2. Department of Geology, Stephen F. Austin Sate University. Nacogdoches, Texas. Last accessed 9-11-15: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1120&context=sinkhole_2013
Posted on September 4, 2015
Park’s Ranch Cave – Part 1
Half excited and half dreading the cold, murky cave waters, I sat down on the wet cave floor and slid down the natural slide into the 55-degree (F) water. I had gotten used to wading through the water up to my knees, but now we had reached the deeper waters. It felt like my stomach did a somersault, protesting the sudden cold as the water rose above my waist and the subtle rotten-egg smell of sulfur tingled in my nose. Filthy childhood flashbacks of the time(s) I tried to make a “swimming pool” and “water slide” out of the 4-foot deep back-yard “barracks” (really a hole my brother made me dig with him) played through my head: that was just a muddy mess! Back in the present caving adventure – soon the water was above my shoulders. Taking my caving helmet off to allow for more head room in the tight air space between the deep water and cave ceiling, I gripped the guide rope and swam through the broad, dark room.
One of the things our adventurous group encountered most while caving at Park’s Ranch (located near Carlsbad, New Mexico) was water. We even had a bit of unintentional excitement with some of the water, as I related in the story last week (read the story here). I suppose it is a little obvious that a big hole in the ground would be likely to catch water, but with my background in geology I was rather fascinated with the water in the cave and what it had to do with the formation of all the different land forms of the area. Geologically speaking, Park’s Ranch is part of a gypsum karst plane.
Karst is a type of landscape that is made by the dissolving of certain types of rocks like gypsum, limestone, and dolostone. These landscapes are known for their underground natural water drainage systems, caves, and sinkholes. Park’s Ranch is carved out of soft, white gypsum and doesn’t have the big stalagmites (ground) and stalactites (ceiling) like Carlsbad, which is carved out of limestone. While in Missouri this summer (more on that here), I got to see a few small caves that are part of the limestone/dolostone Ozark karst landscape.
You may have heard of the Rio Grande River – one of the most famous rivers of Texas and New Mexico. The Pecos is a smaller river that flows into the Rio Grande. The Black River, which flows through the gypsum karst plane and into the Pecos, is a little known river because it is often dry. While the Black River is fed by springs and surface runoff, the waters usually get drawn in by karst features like sink holes, caves, etc. Karst landscape features explain why so much water ends up in Park’s Ranch Cave today– especially after an unusually rainy season like much of the Texas/New Mexico area experienced earlier in 2015. But we haven’t even broached the topic of how the karst got here or how and when the cave was formed – all of that will have to wait until next week.
When it comes to learning science and any other life-journey the Lord takes you on, it’s best to take it one step at a time – in bite-sized pieces. The things we learn and experience today will prepare us for the next step. So often I worry about the distant (and not-so-distant) future; how am I going to solve all these problems that I logically figure will probably come up? The first time I entered those deep waters in the cave was a little scary, but after going through those deep passages, the deeper, darker, colder waters ahead weren’t so bad. God prepares us for the next step just in time. Like my caving stories, the Lord probably will bring you through deep dark waters. But you don’t have to worry about the deepest, coldest, darkest waters to come because He will probably bring you through a difficult passage where you can learn to trust your Guide before He brings you to the most difficult ones.
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, September 2015
Reference:
- “THE GYPSUM KARST PLAIN AND THE CASTILE FORMATION” by Jason M. Richards. Canyons & Caves. Issue No. 22 – Autumn 2001, Newsletter from the Resources. Stewardship & Science Division. Carlsbad Caverns National Park http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/upload/c&c22.pdf
- Steve Austin. 1980. Origin of Limestone Caves. Acts & Facts. 9 (1). http://www.icr.org/article/origin-limestone-caves
- “Caves—The Greatest Show Under Earth” by Buddy Davis. Published July 1, 2013. Answers in Genesis. Last accessed September 4, 2015: https://answersingenesis.org/geology/caves/caves-the-greatest-show-under-earth/
Updated on February 19, 2016
Through Deep Waters – Caving Adventure
I could feel my entire body quaking as the cold, murky cave water I was wading through crept up over my neck and darkness pressed in all around me. I took off my caving helmet and carried it in my trembling hands to give myself extra breathing space in the narrow gap between the low ceiling and extremely high water level. Both the ceiling and the floor of the cave dropped even lower – I had to swim on and off, because the water was too deep for my feet to touch the bottom in several places. Suddenly, the rocky ceiling dropped so low (about 8-10 inches above the water) in one part that I had to dip my chin into the water to make it through to a bigger gap.
We were so very close to the exit – just a few hundred yards and we would be out in the sunshine of a hot New Mexico summer afternoon. My toes were numb from the cold water we had journeyed through for most of our path through the cave – warmth and sunlight sounded delightful! Unexpectedly, our group leader passed down the message to stop and stay where we were while he scouted further ahead. A few minutes later the verdict was determined: the water would get even deeper the closer we got to the exit – too deep for us to get through safely.
Our hearts sank as we realized we were going to have to retrace our entire path back to the same entrance where we started. I dreaded the thought of dipping my chin in the waters though the most difficult place I had just encountered. Teeth chattering from cold, we all realized we had to make it out soon. I sucked in a deep, shaky breath as we all turned around and faced the challenges behind us for the second time. With the encouragement of a friend, I quickly swam back through my toughest part, letting the water rise to my chin again, feeling the refrigerator- cold water touch my earlobes. As soon as I was through the worst part, I began to sing:
“Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood; Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song, In the night season and all the day long
Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright, God leads His dear children along; Sometimes through the valley, in darkest of night, God leads His dear children along . . . ” ¹
Among the six adventurous people of our caving band, we continued singing hymns all the way back to the entrance – crawling, crouching, wading, and swimming. As our group approached our starting point, the water started to feel less frigid. All of us stopped to behold the glorious sight: daylight at the end of the tunnel. Someone started the song:
“Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes; He arose a Victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!” ²
I learned a lot from my latest adventure, caving at Parks Ranch Caves in New Mexico with a group of friends a couple of weeks ago. In the next few weeks, I’ll be writing more about this adventure and the science behind the beautiful gypsum cave system at Parks Ranch. But, there’s also a lot of spiritual application I learned from the caves. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Even in the depths of the earth His presence surrounded us. He heard our prayers and gave us a song in the valley in the darkest of night. Because we live in a sin-cursed world, sometimes the darkness will press down all around us and we will have to go through deep, cold waters not knowing what is on the other side. But, if we let Him, His holy Presence will surround us, withholding us even in our darkest moments and filling our hearts with songs of praise.
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, August 2015
- “God Leads Us Along” – by G. A. Young
- “Christ Arose” – by Robert Lowry
Posted on August 21, 2015
Molded in His Image, Part 2
The sweat gathered on my furrowed brow as I gently – but firmly – tried to roll the extremely delicate rubber sheet off of the rough stony object. The intensity built as I started to get a good section moving that might be enough to get the rest of the sheet off . . . but, the closer I got to the most important parts, the more it began to weaken until suddenly it tore. Hoping it was still salvageable, I tried starting on another side, but found this part was much too sticky to work. My heart began to sink. After continual tearing and sticking, especially in the critical points, I gradually reconciled myself to the fact that this particular fossil dinosaur footprint mold we had made was simply not strong enough to be used. I tried everything I could, but the latex rubber mold was just too thin to be pulled off the first replica we tried to make with it. We had known this mold was a long shot, but it was still sad to see the work of our hands become useless and destroyed. So goes a mold making tragedy.
Last week I wrote about my recent experience making molds of some of the fossil dinosaur footprints in Glen Rose, Texas, as well as some of the basics of how mold making works and why it’s important (read that article here). The main point of making a mold of a fossil is to make replicas of that fossil. No, the replicas are not the “real-deal”, and though they don’t cost as much as the real fossil, they are still quite valuable and useful. Many of the popular dinosaur bone displays in museums are replicas. The real fossils are often kept where they can be better protected and used for scientific research and the replicas can be displayed, copied, and seen in many different places at once. The point of a replica is to make the fossil known.
Hold on to that idea: the reason we make replicas (called casts) is to make known the fossil it’s molded to look like. That sounds pretty similar to the reason why people were originally created: we are made in His image to bring glory to our Creator God, knowing Him and making Him known. Sin corrupted that originally perfect reflection of the image of God in mankind. But, since Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, taking our punishment for us, we can choose to be a new creation in Him, reflecting the image of Christ and making Him known. Ideally, we want to be shaped and formed into the image of Christ, just like a replica is shaped and fashioned by the molds into the image of the original fossil.
Last week I mentioned that there are two parts of the mold – the flexible, rubber inner mold and the outer rigid, plaster “mother mold”. The flexible, detailed inner mold is like our character, beliefs, interests, and other “soft”, changeable aspects that mold us into who we are, hopefully reflecting the image of Christ and making Him known to those around us. The hard mother mold is like the unchangeable factors in our lives that mold us more generally, like the family a person is born into, his or her gender, and various other physical factors (e.g. ethnicity, eye color, etc).
Like in the mold making tragedy I mentioned at the beginning that ended up destroying the dinosaur footprint mold, sometimes there are “mold making” tragedies in our lives – ultimately all based in sin – that can mar the image of Christ that we are trying to reflect. Our “rubber molds” (that is, our character, convictions, etc.) can get warped or damaged. Trying to change or control the unchangeable factors in our lives is often like damaging the “mother mold” – it can have devastating effects on the inner mold and any replica that is made with that mold. A rubber inner mold is usually easier to fix than a damaged “mother mold”. The moral of the molding story? Let God mold you and make you more into a reflection of the image of Christ, every day. From the tiniest detail of your life to the biggest unchangeable factors choose not to resist, but let Him have control. You are designed to mimic His image and make Him known to the world around you.
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, August 2015
Posted on August 14, 2015
Molded in His Image, Part 1
Swim away little fishies! I thought as I slowly dunked a plastic jug into the murky water of the river, careful to keep my precariously balanced position on the rocks. Fascinated, I watched some of the fish up close as they swam just inches away from my hand, hoping none of them would try to swim inside my jug and sacrifice themselves to become part of our team’s project. As soon as the jug finished gulping all the water it could hold, I brought it back to where we were working on the dinosaur footprint fossils. As soon as everything else was in place and ready to go, I got to work mixing white plaster powder with the water.
During my brief time working on a dig in Glen Rose, Texas, this summer our team made a mold of one of the fossil dinosaur footprints in the Paluxy River bed. A mold can be used to make precisely accurate replicas, called casts, of the original fossil. These casts can be used in many different ways – they can be studied, displayed, and transported by many different people in ways that might not be possible (or wise) for with the original fossil. Though they are not the “real” fossil, they can be very useful for getting an idea of what the real thing looks like, similar to a photograph. To get an accurate cast (replica) it’s important to make a good mold.
The innermost part of the mold is made of a flexible latex rubber material that captures even the tiny details of the original fossil without damaging it. But, since the inner mold is flexible it can be a little too flexible and lose its original shape by sticking to itself or a number of other ways. This is why we create a rigid “mother mold” over the inner mold, made out of wet plaster strengthened by burlap cloth, before the newly made latex inner mold is taken off the original fossil (more about how the mold is made here).
The mother mold is essential. It’s rigid, oddly shaped, and sometimes rather ugly (however, I have painted a mother mold a lovely robin’s-egg blue to resolve that). When making a cast, it I extremely important to put a sheet of plastic between the flexible inner mold and mother mold so that the mother mold does not get damaged by any leaks or spills during casting. On the mold we made in Glen Rose, we made a cast (replica) on-site out of plaster. Since the mother mold is also made of plaster, if any of the plaster leaks or spills out of the rubber inner mold, it can permanently damage the mother mold. And if the mother mold gets damaged, the entire mold will probably be useless since all the casts (replicas) made with a damaged mother mold will be flawed.
We were originally made in God’s image; just like the cast (replica) is made in the image of the fossil, we were meant to represent the image of God. Then something happened – sin came into the world through Adam and Eve’s choice to disobey, marring our originally perfect image. But because Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, we can once again be formed into that good image we were originally meant to be. It’s a process though – we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, conforming ourselves to the image of Christ. Just like the cast transforms the wet plaster to the image of the mold so that it can look like the original fossil, we are transformed to reflect the image of Christ. More on this topic next week!
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, 2015
