The picture you see at the left shows my room and the beautiful setting I walked out into each morning at the Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico at the CLASS Christian Writer's Conference.
The Ghost Ranch has limited lighting as you roam the campus at night, requiring conferees/inhabitants to use flash lights to navigate. That might sound a little rustic – and it certainly is for someone like me – but it can also provide moments that otherwise might be easy to miss.
Every night, as I reached the top of the mesa, where my room was located, I looked to the sky. The view made every planetarium I've ever visited (which, admittedly, is limited) seem like a Hot Wheel version of a race car. The vast expanse of blackness, decorated with star constellations and star clusters and other things of which I know nothing about made me feel small in a flawed human sort of way and big in the God who made all of this loves me sort of way.
That contrast set the stage for what happened during the day as flawed humans from various backgrounds and theological beliefs gathered together to worship the Creator, sharpen their writing skills, and learn how the publishing world works – all done with the hope of bringing God glory through the written word.
I can't wait to do it all again next year.
