On our recent tour of the Grand Canyon and national parks we traveled with people from various states across our nation, and I want to tell you that as widespread as we were in our homes’ locations, everyone with us was a patriotic, hardworking American. They were warm, inviting and very much looking forward to meeting the rest of us – often looking about with ready smiles.

This trip confirmed to me that that is who Americans generally are – we are more alike than we are different. Americans as a whole are people who help each other. As Christians, we are commanded to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And love our neighbor as ourself.” This was shown to me so many times on this trip.

I met a lovely Sister in Christ from Georgia. She was traveling alone in her senior years, and everyone in our group made sure she always had company for lunch, dinner or any event we attended. Her love for Jesus bounced back to her from others taking her under their wings and loving her.

Everywhere we went, as we stood in line to eat or attend an event, or even to find a seat in a crowded room, each person seemed to be looking out for the others. At the national parks there were so very many languages being spoken that I could not imagine how these various peoples communicated enough to even order dinner, but those of us visiting and those working in the parks were over and above watchful and kind to all, making sure accommodations were made so that everyone around us had the best experience they could. What a gift to our country to send foreign visitors home with good words and praises for our people and our land.

Of course, no one said they were working on behalf of Jesus, but when we met someone over and above we might notice a necklace with a cross or some other emblem or trinket that would explain the exceptional service and care for those many people.

Our tour guide told us that we were visiting in the less-busy season, and the Grand Canyon has more than 6 million visitors a year. It is beyond my imagination that people fly such great distances, not only from the U.S. but from distant countries, just to see this canyon in the middle of nowhere, but they do, and in great numbers

We met and spoke to diverse people and enjoyed each of them. When we were waiting in the Philadelphia airport we were seated near an Orthodox Jewish family traveling prior to Passover with their three young children, the youngest having the most beautiful copper-color hair.

A lovely lady we met on our tour was from Brigantine – we live in such a small world. We met Hopi and Navajo Indians in their homelands and were able to converse a while with them. We sat with three generations of a family of Japanese heritage while touring Zion Park. The grandparents came to the United States before having children, so the children and grandchildren were all born here. The entire family traveled from Maryland and Washington, D.C., on a joint vacation to teach the three little ones about their great inheritance.

That was something our tour guide Mike emphasized more than once, saying all of these national parks and monuments belong to us – the people. We are the ones who must honor the past as well as the next generation as we make sure these lands are available for many years to come. What a wonderful thought that your children’s grandchildren can see the very same sight from the very same spot where their great-grandparents stood when they were young. I pray our legacy to the coming generations is our ability to keep the United States of America unified, beautiful and God-led for them.

The people we met were very gracious, and that might have been because we were all so enamored with God’s beautiful creation that seldom did I see anyone check their phone for news updates or media posts, all of which seemed so frivolous considering we were on a trip focused on nature. Possibly if each of us would meet others more often face to face we might clearly see our similarities and notice less any differences.

This was a trip blessed by God for me to meet the multitudes of people created by Him from all around the world. Every race, nationality and religion. A buffet, if you will, of people placed on Earth to glorify our Lord. I pray that each visitor and tourist saw the same graciousness of our glorious God as I did.

Editor’s note: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.