Sea Shells in West Texas

Genesis 7:17-24

My friend Kim owns a ranch in West Texas, and that is a long way from any Bay or Ocean, but as you come out of the ranch house front door and turn to your right you see a hill about hundred yards away.  One day, four of us walked to the top of that hill and began to look at the view of the ranch, when we noticed seashells all over the top of that hill.  How did sea shells get into West Texas, that is at least three hundred miles from any salt water, and yet we found all kinds of sea shells.  The Bible tells us that God destroyed the earth with water, in Genesis 7:19-20, “And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.  The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.”

The footnote in my Bible said a cubit was about 18 inches, which means the water was over 22 feet above the tallest mountain.  If you have ever been in the Texas hill country during a heavy rainstorm, it is amazing how fast the landscape changes.  At the bottom of the hill we live on, is a creek that is often dry, and a four-inch rain will turn it into a raging river with white caps that fill the small valley between the hills.  After we built the house I made a dam in the creek with very large rocks hoping to retain the water, but the first large rainstorm moved those large rocks as if they were small pebbles.  When you look at this account in chapter seven, it is easy to understand how the Grand Canyon and all the other wonders were shaped from the mighty hand of God.  The problem is that intelligent people try to dismiss the Bible and the flood and tell us that it took millions of years to do what God did in the 40 days that the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.  And rain fail upon the earth forty days and forty nights.  That is why we found seashells on Kim’s West Texas ranch.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice