Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy. PROVERBS 31:8, 9, NIV
In the southwest corner of South Dakota there is a wonderful place called the Black Hills National Forest. The surrounding area is flat prairie lands, but in this corner of the state, hills covered with trees rise up and, from a distance, look black thus earning the name “black hills” from Native Americans who live there. As we drove our car west toward the Black Hills we could see that looked like a huge, dark mound rising from the flat prairies.
Soon we were driving into the Black Hills and into Custer State Park.
In the Park, we drove along a loop and saw many wonderful things, including bison that casually walked across the road in front of us. There was one section of the loop we were looking forward to visiting-the Needles Highway. The road went high up into the black hills to an area of granite mountain peaks that look like a pointy spires standing tall and rising up out of the mountain. It was obvious that a massive effort had gone into building the road that weaved in and around these amazing vertical rock formations. In one part, the road cut right between two of these narrow spires just wide enough to get a car through. There was also a trail we wanted to hike-the Cathedral Spires Trail. We parked the car and followed the trail up through a forest area for about twenty minutes. It eventually led to a little valley surrounded by a bunch of rock formations standing tall around us.
Did you know God has asked us to stand tall too?
He wants us to stand up for other who can’t stand up for themselves. He wants us to defend the poor and needy and those who are misjudged.