Arabian Night

After our long day exploring Petra, we woke up the next morning and drove to the Wadi Rum. Okay, the Wadi Rum could be described as...I'm not sure..it was pretty incredible.  Let's try: a mountain range meets the desert meets the Grand Canyon.  What?

Wadi Rum IS a desert but it's surrounded by mountains and they, too, are carved like Petra--but not by human hands.  These mountains are carved in amazing ways by God and natural elements and I've never seen anything like it!  These mountains are mostly sandstone but several of the bottom layers are made of granite.  We got there about mid-day once again, and watched a video on the 'sporting activities' that take place in the Wadi Rum.  It's mostly rock climbing and it seriously would be a rock climber's paradise.  After this, we hopped on some jeeps (that could have fallen apart underneath us at any point in time) and took a tour of part of the area.  We saw the spring where water was coming down from the mountain and fueling the only green things in the desert; it's been tapped into and feeds the local people who live there!  The spring is named after Lawrence of Arabia who was a British man that fell in love with the Arab land and helped them rebel against the Ottomans during World War II (I think this is correct, I just learned about him and haven't seen the movie).  From there we went on and got some time to play on a huuuuuge sand dune!  It's amazing how entertaining sand can be.  Truly.

Then we saw a cave-like thing where there was another small spring and where there were the only human-made carvings that we saw the whole time.  These carvings were in Arabic but our tour guide said that it was from so long ago and such a primate form of Arabic, that current locals can't even fully understand the writings on the walls.

Then we finally made it to our camp where we were camping for the night!

Now, I didn't know I was getting myself into a DESERT CAMPOUT when I signed up for this trip. Okay, I grew up camping and backpacking in New Mexico with my family and I've had my share of that--I can rough it!  But I've never camped in a desert before.... I was fully expecting to not enjoy the experience very much. I mean, think of a tent on the ground with an unforeseen amount of dirt rolling in, going to the bathroom in the bushes--oh, wait there are no bushes--going to the bathroom behind a pile of small rocks and hoping someone has extra Kleenex?  I wasn't sure.  But turns out, we weren't 'roughing it' as much as I thought!  The locals who take you on this tour of the Wadi Rum end up becoming your hosts at the campsite.  And they love their jobs, they love sharing their lifestyles, and they love hosting you.  They make it more of an experience rather than a hassle.  It was so great and definitely a highlight of the trip!

We slept in tents, yes, but they were off the ground and had beds!  And we all explored and hiked during the day and saw some incredible things.  That evening we all ate a meal together that the locals cooked and it was soooo good.  They had been cooking all day and had cooked chicken pieces underground using fire and heat from the sun, much as Hawaiians cook pigs for luaus.  They had cooked onions underground too, which I loved :)  I helped myself to some incredible hot mint tea (seriously, so good) and we had fruit for dessert.  After this, we all sat around the campfire and talked and then the locals brought out their instruments and played and sang for us.  The stars came out and there was no moon--you can only imagine how gorgeous the stars were.  So numerous, bright.  I can think that this is like what Abraham saw when the Lord promised him his decendents would be as many as these..  I went to sleep in my tent and drifted off while looking out my window at the stars hovering over me...
I love Arabian nights.

This looks like Noah's ark planted itself in the middle of Wadi Rum after the flood:

Some other shots:

The next morning 5 of us woke up at 4:00 a.m. to scale a rock pile or two and hike up a little mountain nearby so we could watch the sunrise.  The sunrise wasn't particularly colorful or breathtaking, but it still made one stand in awe of the majesty and vastness of the creation.

We all packed up camp and left about 8:00, but before that we had a devo on the side of another mountain and sang.  One of the points of the devotional, and rightfully so, was to stop and wonder at how magnificent God's creation is.  But I was thinking a little past that in my own mind.

It truly was a great view, yes.  But if God could make something so magnificent on earth for us to take care of, how much MORE magnificent are we...?  We are made in His own image and although that sounds so cliche because we hear it alot, think about it. 
His own image.
His creation may be spectacular but He didn't make anything else besides a human being to be modeled after Himself.

As a single star in the universe, as one grain of sand, as a lone ant on a mountain top, so we are each just a part of something much much bigger. but God sees us.  Individually.  And picks up each star, or grain of sand, or ant and says to us, "My child. You are small. But you are apart of my plan--and that makes you significant  And you are apart of Me--and that makes you magnificent  Even more so than the earth I gave to you."