Friday, Feb. 19: Salvation Mountain, a simple story of love!

This week, I took a journey to a one of a kind place. Just an hour and a half southeast of Palm Springs, California, is a desolate town on the edge of the Salton Sea called Niland. John Donne didn’t have anything on this place as, “No man is in Niland!” We didn’t meet a man there; we met a saint. Leonard Knight, at the ripe old age of 78, has offered his tireless energy for the last 30 years creating a piece of folk art that he uses to share his love for Jesus. Born and raised in Vermont, Leonard left high school after his sophomore year. He served in the army during the Korean War and ventured west. While visiting his sister in San Diego, he asked Jesus into his heart, and his life changed on the spot. He struggled with people who tried to make the relationship with God complicated, as many told him you couldn’t know God unless you deeply understood every aspect of the Bible. Leonard was a simple man; he found God in a simple way; he loved the Lord with his simple heart. Back in Vermont after his father’s death, Leonard decided that his way to share the Lord’s love was by putting the message “God is love” on a hot-air balloon and flying it above the curious people. Not being a simple task, the project grew too big for him as the years it took to assemble the balloon caused the weathered fabric to rip when inflated. He had relocated to Slab City, outside of Niland, CA, with his old van carrying the decaying, balloon fabric and a homemade inflating device. When the balloon wouldn’t hold air, another idea inflated in Leonard’s mind and Salvation Mountain was born. With years of labor, Leonard has created a place as colorful as Oz. He could have filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool with the gallons of paint he has used. There are enough bales of hay in the construction to feed a thousand horses for a year. He has created his own adobe and painted the Lord’s love across the world’s most interesting billboard. And for all those years, Leonard has lived simply inside the caves of his creation in a location that reaches as high as 120 degrees in the summer. His weathered face reveals his time in the sun. His thin frame reveals that he has enough food to survive, but not an abundance of it. Why? What would cause a man to spend his life creating this? It was the calling the Lord put on Leonard’s life. It might appear strange to the masses that visit, but like it or not, you cannot help but be impacted by this simple man and his simple message, always accompanied by a welcoming smile and the offer of a tour. What must have seemed crazy to many has become world renowned, and was even featured in the movie, “Into the Wild.” God calls some to be preachers, others to be teachers. Some He gives the gift of hospitality or encouragement. God gave Leonard the ability to live alone simply and create a slice of heaven in an isolated section of desert. Though isolated, God didn’t ask Leonard to travel to others, but instead, brought the people to Leonard. 12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 All of the gifts the Lord gives are to glorify Him, not us! If you are walking in His Spirit, He will use you to further His kingdom in amazing ways. Though it may never be in the way you imagine or desire, the result will be spectacular. Remember, there is nothing about the Lord that is ordinary, and what He designs for you will far surpass what you have in mind. The key is to find that place in the body where God desires you to be. Though no man is an island, there is a man in Niland! God puts people everywhere to share His love. That love is simple and it’s bigger than any love we can ever know. Be the unique person He created you to be in Him, today! Never underestimate the power of God’s love to make the simplest task something special. There is nothing mundane about our God, who deals in miracles!