2023-06 Not A Man's Footprint
Today we are celebrating Scout Sunday, which typically is held on the Sunday prior to February 8th. In reality, you can celebrate Scout Sunday on any Sunday during this month. So, with that in mind, we will be focusing on one point of the Scout Law for the whole month, Reverent.
There is one thing that happens every single day that most of us take for granted, the rising of the Sun. There’s some mornings where I appreciate the Sun more than usual. Having the Sun finally rise as I’m keeping my hands warm over the camp stove cooking breakfast during a winter campout is one of those mornings. Another, is while on a 14 mile night hike up to the top of Mount Timpanogos located in Utah. Where we reached the top of the mountain to watch the sun rays break through the darkness as the sun peeked over the horizon.
Some fun facts about the Sun. It has 8 planets that orbit around it. It takes 27 Earth days to rotate on its axis. Its radius is 432,690 miles (to give you some comparison, Earth’s radius is roughly 4,000 miles). It would take 1.3 million Earths to make up the mass of the Sun. How can we explain the creation of the Sun along with everything that orbits it within this solar system? If we were told the process of how everything was created, could our minds even comprehend it?
An old Scouters Minute crossed my mind as I started to think about this subject.
A man was crossing the desert with an Arab guide. Day after day the guide never failed to kneel on the burning sand and call upon his God. At last one evening, the man said to the Arab, “how do you know there is a God?” The guide fixed his eye upon the scoffer for a moment and then replied, “how do I know that there is a god? How did I know that a camel and not a man passed last night? Was it not by the print of his hoof in the sand?” And pointing to the sun whose rays were fading over the horizon, he added, “that footprint is not of man.”
As we attend campouts and explore on day hikes, let us all be alert and recognize all those little and big things out there that reflect the footprint of the Creator.