Inspired by our hiking small groups at PCTC, Pastor Julie Delezenne wrote a 12-month hiking devotional to be used by small groups or individuals embarking on hikes in Northern Michigan (or similar climates!). Begin your hike by reading the devotional and closing prayer together and continue with one or more of the listed “practices” during the hike. Suggested hikes listed connect with the theme of the month (but are only suggestions!). May God bless your journey in God’s wonder-full creation.
September
Petoskey Stones and Geologic Time
Suggested Hikes:
Maple Bay Natural Area
Petobego Creek Natural Area
For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to break down and a time to build up;
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones together… (Ecclesiastes 3:1-5)
Stretch out one of your arms with your palm open and fingers spread. With your other hand, point to your chin. This is the formation of the earth, the beginning of geologic time. Point to your upper bicep. That is where the Great Oxidation Event occurs as our atmosphere is filled with a large increase in oxygen. In the lower to middle part of your palm, this is the Devonian Period, 100 million years before dinosaurs appear.
In this time, Michigan was near the equator, covered by warm shallow seas. Coral grew. A particular type of coral, Hexagonaria percarinatae, was abundant. It grew in colonies, each hexagon shaped coral next to another, with a colony growing up to a half ton or larger. When the colony died, it would be buried under mud which eventually turned to shale.
If you still have your arm stretched, point to the very tip of your fingernail on your middle finger. If you shave a file off, you would have just shaved off all of human history, around the last 300,000 years.
During a fraction of this time, humans have been finding what we now call Petoskey stones on the shores of Lake Michigan beaches, predominantly in the northwestern part of the Lower Peninsula of what is now Michigan. In 1965, the Petoskey stone even became our state stone.
It is often a thrill finding a Petoskey stone as one combs the beaches. Their beautiful design shining more brilliantly when the stone is wet. Holding a Petoskey stone, we are instantly connected across space and time. We remember that this land has not always been like this- at one point, it was not even land! The world changes and moves both at the same time faster and slower than our minds can comprehend.
On the fourth day of creation in Genesis 1, God gives us a way to measure time- days, seasons, years- by creating the sun, moon, and stars, and yet time always seems a bit incomprehensible. It is so vast and so much still remains unknown:
[God] has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. – Ecclesiastes 3:11b
We do not even know what God has planned for our short, less than a fingernail shaving, lifespan.
When we pick up a Petoskey stone perhaps we can remember however, that God holds all of time, even our own. God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Perhaps as we hold a Petoskey stone, we can imagine God holding our lifespans too and we can entrust all of it, all the “times” that the writer of Ecclesiastes lifts up, to God.
During the Hike:
- Take a look at a Petoskey stone and find “hunting” tips and rules here: https://www.visitcharlevoix.com/petoskeyandcharlevoixstones/
- Discuss with a hiking partner or ponder alone: What “time” from Ecclesiastes 3 does it feel like you are living in today? What are ways you are feeling like you are able to or not able to entrust that time to God?
Prayer:
Creator God, you hold all of our time in your hands. Help us to trust you with each day, each hour, each moment. Amen.
Bibliography:
Mueller, Bruce and William H. Wilde. The Complete Guide to Petoskey Stones. The University of Michigan Press and The Petoskey Publishing Company, 2004.
https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/blog/the-history-of-the-earth-at-an-arms-length