Sweetwater Creek State Park

Subtitle: How Noah's Flood related to the election of Senator Obama

I made a return visit today to Sweetwater Creek State Park today. My first visit was Thanksgiving Day last year, but I have made a couple of visits since. I began with the yellow trail, which crosses the creek, climbs the ridge, and then comes back down – quickly. The short but steep climb to the ridge is a real thigh burner! The creek crossing over the military surplus portable bridge is interesting and unique.

Sweetwater Creek is probably mis-named, as it is far from my image of a creek. It is as wide as the Chattahoochee at this point, and loaded with large rocks, similar to the Chattahoochee at Palisades.

I finished the yellow trail, returned to the visitor center, and started the white trail. This one makes an easy climb to a grassy area, and then descents steeply along an old road bed to Jack’s Lake, a man-made recreational lake that pre-dates the park. After passing the lake, this trial gets very technical, crossing over some steep and narrow cliffs that I would not expect to find sanctioned in a state part. I took a detour across a bridge to a non-park trail which follows an old road to the historic New Manchester Colony. It now interconnects with a trail system built by a housing development. I took the opportunity to do some rock climbing out over the water.

The white trail dead-ends into the red trail, the main “consumer” trail in the park. It runs along the old mill ruins and is well interpreted. Half of this trail involves climbing over rocks. The kids and dogs particularly seem to love it.

Unlike my past visits, I took the time to pick-up the interpretive guides, and to read the appropriate parts as I passed each numbered marker. I occasionally had to chuckle in a somewhat frustrated fashion over their references to millions of years of the earth’s existence. This got me to thinking about Noah’s flood, and how it has served as a great mis-direction to the “wise” of this world. Imagine a scientist finding a sea fossil in the middle of the desert. God clearly does have a sense of humor.

In considering Noah’s flood, I began to think about why God did it the way he did. After all, he could have saved much trouble by having everyone but Noah’s family suddenly disappear and the blink of his eye without the need to have an ark or send a flood. Noah’s family and the animals could have gone about their business undisturbed. So then, why did God do it? I don’t pretend to know God’s mind, but these are my thoughts:

1) To build Noah’s faith. Many biblical historians believe that rain did not exist prior to the flood. Imagine what some people must have said to Noah when he explained that the ark would save people and animals from the flood. I am sure they thought he was out of his mind, and he might have thought the same about himself at some point. This serves as a lasting lesion to us that when God points us in a direction, we should move forward with all of our energy, not withstanding what the world might think.
2) As a witness to later generations. Early world history, and particularly the stories of God’s works, were passed via oral tradition. It is easier to preserve oral tradition when you have vivid stories such as Noah’s Ark. This remains true to this day, even with our printed versions. I remember from teaching 3rd grade Sunday School years ago how fascinated they were with this particular story. Our culture remains fascinated with it. After all, look at the documentaries and feature films that have been based on it. Many researchers still search for the ark.
3) As a lasting reminder that God continues to engineer the world (and I use that word deliberately). Many who otherwise believe in God seem to think that after the fall of man, God turned the world over to man, and said in effect “I will check on you later.” The flood serves as a lasting reminder that God is still in charge of every aspect and detail.

I like many, was very disappointed by the outcome of the Presidential election. I did not realize how much the process impacted me until I woke up Wednesday morning feeling like a new man. Just as it seemed odd to me that God would engineer a flood rather than taking care of business the “logical” way, it seems odd that his plan would involve Senator Obama. Noah’s flood however, at least in my mind, stands as a vivid and lasting reminder that God continues to engineer this world as he sees fit, and with a view to his eternal purpose, and not just a random four year period in life of a relatively new nation in North America. It sort of gives me a feeling of excitement as to what God will do with this!