IT IS A GOOD LAND by Robert Soto

April 17, 2010

IT IS A GOOD LAND by Robert Soto

Psalm 65:9 "You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it."

We are driving through the Texas Hill Country. It has been raining so everything is green and beautiful. The wildflowers are in full bloom and the various arrays of color exemplify the natural beauty that only God the Creator could have imagined. The creation is an amazing thing. Our people saw the creation as a gift from God the Creator for the good of the people. I could write about the creation but in the midst of all this beauty comes the reminder that our people once made their home among these valleys, rivers and creeks. We used to do our hunting and survival among the things God the creator created for us. But when you read the history of the land it seems like people have deliberately forgotten who was here before Columbus first stepped on the Island of San Salvador.

This memory came to mind yesterday as I was invited to share how we used the grant money given to us by the city's Art Council. Before I shared how we used the grant money, I shared a little of our history and how the grant brought everything together in full circle. It was then that I concluded that we are the forgotten people. People that came to our lands and who now make their homes in what used to be our lands have forgotten that we once cared for this land and lived on this land and considered this land sacred and a gift from God the Creator. We took care of the land but at the end we acknowledged that it was not us but God the Creator who worked through us and the gift He gave us. David said, "You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it." It was and continues to be a good land, even though the people who live on it have forgotten.

Robert Soto, Lipan Apache and pastor of:

McAllen Grace Brethren Church
The Native American New Life Center
Chief of Chiefs Christian Church