Amazing Spectacle

One of the most unique and fascinating places I have ever visited is Yellowstone National Park in the United States. It was established as a national park by the US Congress and President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. “Yellowstone contains half of all the world’s known geothermal features” and two-thirds of all the geysers on the planet.

While visiting the place, one is constantly tempted to say, “I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.”2 The word geyser comes from the Icelandic verb geysa (to gush) and refers to a natural hot spring that regularly ejects a spray of steam and boiling water into the air.

The most famous geyser at Yellowstone is Old Faithful, named by Henry D. Washburn in 1870. “This geyser erupts every 44 to 125 minutes” and can spout “4,701 to 9,401 gallons of boiling water as high as 186”5 feet into the air.

Many expectant tourists watch the predictable geyser every day and are not disappointed by its performance. The Bible says that we also are “a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men” (1 Corinthians 4:9). Just as people come with expectations of Old Faithful, people also have expectations of us. They expect Christians to behave like Christians, and we shouldn’t disappoint them. “Remember, our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. Christians are to be living epistles, written by God and read by men.” Rhetorical skills might convince and move multitudes for a time. But only our living example can give a lasting, transforming influence to our words. “The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity.

Argument, even when unanswerable, may provoke only opposition; but a godly example has a power that it is impossible wholly to resist.” If you were the only Christian in the world, what would Christianity be like? Reflect on this question, and allow the Holy Spirit to transform your life as needed.