The Ugly Little Blue Bus was fixed!
It had a new radiator and was ready to continue the trip on Route 66. The Leader told the kids that they had not stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park because of the bus problems, so they were going to do something that they had never done. They were going to go east on Route 66 and go back to the Petrified Forest National Park.
They had to travel about 50 miles, so the Leader used the time to tell the kids about the place where they were going. This was not a forest of trees that are standing up and growing, these trees are laying on the ground in pieces and they are made of stone, not of wood anymore! The Leader explained that when wood is changed to stone it is called petrified wood. Wood can only be petrified in very special conditions. The wood must be buried quickly in very wet mud or clay, and the buried wood must be covered by something that will not let any oxygen get to it, volcanic ash is a very good cover to keep oxygen away from the wood. Normally when a tree dies, oxygen works with water and makes the wood decay, and the tree is gone. When oxygen cannot get to the wood, the wood does not decay, the wood molecules are gradually replaced by minerals in the water, and the wood gets changed into stone. The hotter the water is, the quicker the wood gets petrified, wood can get petrified in a couple hundred years under the right conditions. The details of petrified wood can be amazing! Growth rings can still be seen in the petrified wood, and the texture of the bark of the tree can still be seen. However, the petrified wood does not look like normal wood, it has absorbed the colors of the minerals and it is beautiful! There is much evidence of volcanic activity in the Petrified Forest National Park, this explains why the trees were petrified.
The Leader continued explaining that the Petrified Forest National Park was caused by Noah’s flood. Noah’s flood was sent by God to wipe out the wicked people on the earth. At that time all the people were wicked except for Noah and his family. God instructed Noah to build a huge boat, called an ark, to save his family and animals. The story of Noah is found in the Bible in Genesis chapters 6-8. In Genesis 7:11 it says:
“…all the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in might torrents from the sky.”
Water, steam, and lava burst from the ground while the biggest rainstorm in history fell from the sky! The trees in the Petrified Forest show the evidence of the violence of this storm, all the branches were ripped off the trees, and the trees were swept away by the flood waters and piled up like driftwood! The very hot water, clay and volcanic ash covered the tree trunks, and the petrification process began. Over the years, other storms and wind have uncovered the petrified logs so that we can see them today.
When they got to the Petrified Forest National Park the kids were amazed by the beauty of the petrified logs. Some of them were huge and they had been changed to colorful stone logs with amazing detail!
That night the group gathered around the campfire to learn more about God.
The Leader reminded the kids that God had sent Noah’s flood to destroy all the wicked humans that were alive at Noah’s time.
In Genesis 9:11 God promises:
“Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
After the flood, Noah’s family began to repopulate the earth, but there was a problem; every human still had a sin nature, so wickedness began to increase on the earth again. We can see in the world around us that there is much wickedness and sin. God has promised not to destroy the world with another flood, but He has made some new promises. God has promised to destroy the power of sin by providing a way to be forgiven and free from the power of sin.
In Matthew 1:21 the Angel of the Lord is speaking to Joseph in a dream about the baby that Mary is going to have, and God says:
“And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
The name of Jesus means ‘Savior’. Jesus is the Son of God, both fully God and fully human, and He was born so that He could save people from their sins!
In that same dream, the Angel says in Matthew 1:23b:
“She will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”
These two verses tell us that God loves us so much that He wants us to have a way to be free from sin so that we can have friendship with Him! At Christmas time we celebrate the baby Jesus being born as a human while still being fully God. He did this so that He could live a perfect life, and ultimately die on the cross to pay for our sins, and then rise from the dead on the third day after he was killed. If you have never taken the time to ask God to forgive your sins, take time right now to pray and tell God that you believe in His Son, Jesus, and ask for forgiveness. Then you can truly celebrate Christmas!