What I said to our church men in the Black Hills this morning

The rock holding us up from under this ground or thrusting up for us to see in some of the formations here comes from a geological core estimated at over 2 billion years of age. That's such a big number that our minds usually stop thinking about it and just say, "Hmmm, that's a big number."

Compared to such elements here, or to the plant and animal life, or the prehistoric people, or the people we now call Native or even to the few generations of our own culture that have come here, our little group is just a dot on something much greater.

But some dot we turn out to be. We hear Jesus pray for us, saying "Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."

By the plan of the one who made all this, we are desired for a glory to which even this natural splendor can't compare - a glory it was created to point to for us.

By the love of the one who made all this, our little dots of life have had eternal meaning since "before the foundation of the world."

Billions of years may be a lot, but at least there are numbers and ages and rocks we can test around us here. But "before the foundation?" That goes where all of our senses and reference points fail. Jesus tells us that if we push on into that wilderness, the glory of God, we will find the true greatness, purpose and love for which we were made.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.