The statue is called "Keeper of the Plains." It stands on a huge rock above the little and big arkansas rivers. While in Kansas for my first trip in December of 2011, I discovered it by accident while taking a drive downtown. I looked out the window and saw the statue standing above the rivers. It was then that the lyrics came to me, lyrics of artist Rich Mullins, whom I had admired since the age of 13. He had written about the Keeper of the Plains, and when I was staring at it, I realized this was the statue he wrote about :) He spent 7 years of his life there in Wichita. It was pretty cool how the lyrics I had sung for years came to life in that moment of staring at the Keeper of the Plains. It is also significant, this statue, because part of the scripture I was given for healing says this:
"He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." - v. 2
Seeing this statue along with a deep love in my heart for the artwork of Rich Mullins has spoken powerfully to me! God is so creative in his plan for us and so intimate at times in how he speaks it to us individually and uniquely. He sees our hearts, our desires, our loves!
Enjoy the lyrics, photos & song I have posted below!
Well the moon moved past Nebraska
And spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills
And angels danced on Jacob's stairs
Yeah, they danced on Jacob's stairs
There is this silence in the Badlands
And over Kansas the whole universe was stilled
By the whisper of a prayer
The whisper of a prayer
And the single hawk bursts into flight
And in the east the whole horizon is in flames
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
I can feel the earth tremble
Beneath the rumbling of the buffalo hooves
And the fury in the pheasant's wings
And there's fury in a pheasant's wings
It tells me the Lord is in His temple
And there is still a faith that can make the mountains move
And a love that can make the heavens ring
And I've seen love make heaven ring
Where the sacred rivers meet
Beneath the shadow of the Keeper of the plains
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
From the place where morning gathers
You can look sometimes forever 'til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope
The hope that this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
And I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
And I know this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And with the prairies I am calling out Your name
