Do No Allow Your Minds To Be Led Astray

Brian and I visited Montezuma Well, which is a natural limestone sinkhole near Rimrock, Arizona, that is continually supplied by an underground spring and drained by an underground outlet. Although beautiful to look at, the carbonated water in this well is unsafe for humans to drink because it is contaminated with arsenic, calcium, and other chemicals. Although no fish live in the water, there are about a half-dozen species of plants and animals found near the well that are not found anywhere else in the world, including the water scorpion and a type of leech. (I didn't have to be prompted this time to stay a safe distance from the cliff-like edge.)

If you click on the pictures below, you will see remnants of ancient Sinagua cliff dwellings built into the rock wall rim that surrounds the sinkhole. The Sinagua people were farmers, so the water was very valuable to them for irrigating their crops.

Some of the walls still remain.

The picture below is of a Hohokam pit-house. (I wonder what kind of crawly things live in there.)

As I was photographing Montezuma Well, this beautiful oasis that is surrounded on all sides by dry, hot desert, I wondered how many thirst-dying cowboys foolishly drank its waters without first examining it. Just like Eve in the Bible, we can be so easily deceived by appearances that we are fatally led astray.

"But I am afraid

that just as Eve was deceived

by the serpent's cunning,

your minds may somehow

be led astray

from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:3 (NIV)

We must always keep our hearts sincere and purely devoted to Christ.