Single Moments that Last Forever...

(They finally dragged Dave himself to the keyboard)
July 6, 2006-- I had a couple of what Jack Handey calls "Deep Thoughts" today while driving east from Tuscon...

1. We visited Tombstone, AZ, this afternoon and, after touring the microscopic "main drag"-- Alan Street, such as it was; all of three short blocks long-- and winding up at the small (now, regretfully, enclosed) lot on the northeast end of the gravel street. I was impressed that the historically famous "Gunfight at the OK Corral" took place in this rather unimpressive little lot some 125 years ago. From what could be argued an accidental confrontation between denizens of opposite sides of the era's badly blurred line of good legal standing, lasting all of thirty clumsy seconds, virtually countless feet of movie-film stock and who knows how many hours of History Channel programming-- not to mention vertical feet of Time/Life books-- have ignobly sprung. Who hasn't heard of Marshal Wyatt Earp, his brothers and his eccentric pal, erstwhile dentist Doc Halliday? (More tellingly, who-- other than doctoral candidates, tour guides and Kevin Costner know the names of the alleged "bad guys" who lost their lives that day in 1881?)
Anyway, as I meditated on the gunfight, while driving on to El Paso, I kept coming back how often it seemed lasting moments of historical import were established instantaneously. Consider with me:
-- Those bare thirty seconds in Tombstone.
-- 102 minutes in Manhattan on 9/11.
-- A single step and pistol shot in Ford's Theater in 1865.
-- A mere (considering their impact) several hours on a shabby hillside in first-century Jerusalem.
-- A single articulated thought coming forth from the Father's mouth at time's very initial instant...

2. Anyone who still doubts God's credibility as the 'intelligent" Creator of the Universe need only take the drive east on I-10 from Phoenix to El Paso and I am confident that all doubt will quickly evaporate...