Long before I converted to Catholicism, our family had a tradition of going to Turkey Run State Park on Christmas Day or Eve, whichever one we didn’t go up to see his family. Usually, Turkey Run is filled with people enjoying one of Indiana’s most beautiful parks- a place that seems more Appalachian with its rock canyons and waterfalls. But on Christmas morning, we have the park almost to ourselves.
This year, we decided to resurrect our old tradition and head down to Turkey Run on Christmas Day. The weather was unseasonably warm, with highs in the 60s. I usually like to attend Mass on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I was sad to miss Christmas Day Mass. Still, recent health scares in our family made me want to stay close to Stuart and Mid, even if that meant not going to both the Vigil and Day Mass.
But it’s also Christmas, so I wanted to infuse the trip with Jesus. In Faith Formation, we have kids tell us where they saw Jesus over the past week, “God Sightings,” so I thought I’d do the same and look for Jesus everywhere on the celebration of His Nativity. These are some of the places I found Him.
Cross graffiti along with the words “Thank You” at the start of Trail 10
I’m not a fan of graffiti… as Andrew Marvel writes, “Fair trees! wheres’e’er your barks I wound, No name shall but your own be found.” Still… I think this qualifies as seeing Jesus and was the first thing that caught my eye.
Memorial Bench by the Nature Center
Wherever you are, in whatever you do: be love, be kenosis, be Jesus for someone.
Wood Conquers Stone
There were so many examples of trees cracking rocks over time- roots finding their way into the smallest crevices and using that opening to split the stone. This reminds me of how the Holy Spirit can find His way into even the hardest of hearts.
Water Conquers Stone
This little pothole is deceptively shallow. It looks like it goes on forever, but it’s only about three feet deep. It reminds me of a baptismal pool.
Obligatory Dog Pictures
I hope there are dogs in heaven.
Water, Stone, and Sky
The interplay of sky, bare branches, and stone we see throughout Turkey Run in winter reminds me of a cathedral.
“If I should fall even a thousand times a day, a thousand times, with peaceful repentance, I will say immediately, Nunc Coepi [Now I begin]” – Venerable Bruno Lanteri
In the first photo, the tree fell down the side of the cliff, but it remains firmly entrenched and has reoriented itself to the light, growing upwards, forming the U shape its trunk currently takes. Like the Venerable Bruno Lanteri, I pray that when I fall, I will get up with Christ’s help, begin again. I must always discern, like the tree. To know where the Light is, and grow towards Him.
In the second photo (taken on a quick stop at Portland Arch on the way home), a tree has been badly scarred by a wildfire. This fire has exposed a hollow in the tree. While it is weakened by the fire, exposing the rotting center of the tree can allow light and air to enter the wound.
I think it’s like that with us. Sometimes, something incredibly painful happens, and it tears us open. Then, later, we grow back stronger, with God’s help. We grow in ways that didn’t seem possible before the pain, ways that maybe weren’t possible for us without the pain.
Especially in those painful times, finding Jesus and growing toward His light is so important.
