Badlands From The Air

I first traveled by the Badlands and saw part of them from the highway in my early 20s. Linda and I later took our kids there a couple of times in our family western adventures. The kids loved climbing the rocky cliffs, with Linda calling up at them, “Don’t go so high!” They did anyway.

But seeing the Badlands from the air is entirely different from wandering around in them or driving through.

Linda and I are on vacation and flying in a small airplane to destinations out west. Yesterday, we flew over and around the Badlands.

The name Badlands has been in place for centuries, at least. The Lakota Indians called the region, mako sica, or “bad lands.” The French were the first Europeans to record traveling through these sandstone formations, and they called it, les mauvaises terres a traveser, or “bad lands to travel across.”

And when you are in the middle of it and trying to find your way, it’s like a maze—so easy to get lost. It’s hot and dusty-dry in the summer, and rainy with snowy cold winds and slippery to the feet in the winter. Many hikers and explorers have lost their way in there and lost their lives.

But the view from above is very different. You realize it is much smaller than you think when you drive the northern road, and you think the formations go on forever. But from the air, you can see it’s a pretty small area, compared to the plains around and the Black Hills to the west.

You also see that there are easy pathways through the Badlands, uninterrupted by rising hills and peaks. From above, you could tell any lost person how they can easily make their way to the plains and safer travels.

Badlands are a reality of life for all of us. Some of you are in the middle now, not sure what direction to turn or how to get out. From your perspective, it seems like this is going to go on forever. No matter what direction you turn, there is no way out.

Which is why a perspective from above will make all the difference. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

You’re not going to find your way through on your own. You need aerial guidance—the view from above. If you look to God and follow His direction, He will take you through. You can then enjoy the beautiful scenery and take it in all along the way.

Isaiah 30:21 – “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”