The End of a Journey: From My Intense Schoolhouse to His Gospel Hope

Recently, Amanda and I visited Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:9

I had a thought between viewing and admiring the many exhilarating and majestic sights.

The Yellowstone experience illustrates my journey chronicled at Facing Loss: Lessons of Hope from My Unwanted Journey from February 25, 2020 to August 31, 2026. As a reminder, the first three years (2020-2023) of my blog became the basis for the book by the same name. Order here. Please order here!

Or here.

Seriously! Please buy and share this resource.

In Yellowstone National Park, our heads turned often to view beautiful sights, including a multitude of animals. One road winds along a peaceful meadow, rises to an unimpressive pass, and enters a starkly different landscape. From meadows to huge and chaotic rock in a very short distance. Again, I was reminded of my journey. My life had been like a meadow. My family was enjoying a beautiful chapter with new grandchildren. Kim and I were enjoying a loving relationship and the joys of empty nest. A meadow of sorts. And then, loss struck and life instantly became much like those huge chaotic rocks.

But there are several other reasons I chose Yellowstone as an illustration beyond the very real meadow-to-rock stark transition.

Another tender reason to illustrate in this manner is that the year before this intense schoolhouse journey began Kim and I went to Yellowstone together. It was our last anniversary and last vacation trip together before her untimely death. And now, as it turns out, I return with Amanda as I close out this blog journey. Amanda had never been to Yellowstone. I wanted her to experience this incredible place on earth. It really is incredible, even other worldly. But, it occurs to me that it is interesting that I visited Yellowstone before Kim’s death and now, once again, as I end my journey with my blog readers. For the record, most of my journaling ended in 2021 with a short foray into journaling through the Proverbs in 2024. However, crafting and sharing led to this point at the close of August 31, 2026.

A third reason I chose to use this illustration of Yellowstone is the beauty of the park and, especially, how it came to be so beautiful. Yes, meadows and rocky terrains deliver beauty on their own. But further, Yellowstone is home to an incredible canyon with breathtaking waterfalls. Lake Yellowstone delivers its own tranquil beauty. And the wildlife! Bear. Bison. Coyotes. Wolves. Birds galore. Elk. And more. And then, the thermal dynamics of the park inspire anyone standing by to see the gurgling, boiling, spewing, and rumbling. Yellowstone is a massive volcano. And here’s my thought. Yellowstone is formed by destruction.

Beauty was birthed by devastation.

While you’re enjoying the meadows, rocky terrains, canyons, waterfalls, lakes, wildlife, and thermal geysers you can look up to realize you’re in the middle of a fifty-mile radius volcanic rim, the Yellowstone Caldera. You are in a volcano. You’re in a dangerous place. You’re not in a place you should stay too long. You’re in a place that is by definition destruction. And yet, it has given birth to beauty. Beauty out of destruction.

Lessons of gospel hope were birthed out of the loss I faced. My volcanic explosion led to majestic beauty! Gospel beauty!

“…to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning…” Isaiah 61:3

Beauty instead of ashes. Beautiful sights instead of volcanic destruction. Gospel hope instead of brokenness. Salvation instead of lostness. Freedom instead of slavery. Reconciliation instead of hostility.

Hope instead of despair.

“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven…” Colossians 1:22-23

Thank you for journeying with me as we faced loss with the lessons of gospel hope.

Did I mention my book, Facing Loss, available at this link?

“Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬ ‭