My brother and I have enjoyed hiking trips to different national parks over the past few years. This year, we traveled to Wyoming to visit Grand Teton National Park. We enjoy walking in the beauty of God’s creation, good conversation, and Chinese food! This hike was memorable in that we had our first bear encounter. We were coming around a corner, and I heard some ruffling in the bushes. I looked to my right and did not see anything; I looked to my left and saw a huge black bear standing up. As I told my brother there was a bear, I slowly reached for my bear spray as the bear and I had a staring contest. We slowly backed away, and the bear retreated a little bit. We waited a moment, bear spray in one hand, cell phone in the other, and slowly walked past the bear without any altercation. We also saw other animals in the wilderness, such as a marmot, chipmunks, and a large deer.
We spent two long days hiking 25 miles each day. This is longer than our usual routes, and the thought I left with this year can be described with two words: perception and perspective. The mountains in Grand Teton are absolutely beautiful and stunning. The pictures we took do not do justice to the magnitude of the beauty around us. On one of the long hikes, we climbed 4,000 feet to around 11,000 feet high. That route is where perception struck me. One of the paths took us rock scrambling along with walking a very steep section on the side of a mountain. The path then wrapped around into switchbacks, where we would eventually climb over the mountain to the other side. As we were walking, I told my brother it looked really far away and high, but that was because of where we were standing. It seemed like it would be a long path up the mountain, but in reality, it only took thirty minutes or so. When we got to the top, we looked down at how far we walked, and it did not seem like we walked up that high. Mere sight can only make an educated guess at a distance. In addition, our perception was shaped by how tired we were and our desire to be at our destination. True perception is also impossible when humans stand in the middle of mountain peaks, where creation is too large for a human mind to grasp.
Perception leads to another word that struck me during the trip: perspective. We were talking about how we view life. My brother commented that we often see through different lenses, either positive or negative. We can focus on the positive or the negative when we hear something, and most news stories are focused on the negative because that sells. Back on the trail, there was a point on the hike where we thought the mileage was off, and we both started to have a negative perspective. In my mind, I thought, who was the idiot who made the sign with the wrong mileage! I could have thought, wow, what a beautiful place to be in; who cares about the mileage! Perspective is a choice, but we can condition ourselves to respond in particular ways.
This trip helped me see my perception and perspective in a new light. The Lord often uses my time in creation to recalibrate my heart, which He knows I often need. I am still in awe of the beauty of being on top of those amazing peaks and looking down at God’s creative work. The Lord has declared that to humans in his Word,
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm 19:1