Last weekend I visited the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona for the first time. I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of fantastic sights, but never have I laid eyes on anything as incomprehensible as the Grand Canyon. Seriously. It was impossible to even begin to take it in.
Before my visit, I could tell you how long and wide the Grand Canyon is. I could tell you about the Colorado River at the bottom and how John Wesley Powell explored it. I could tell you about all the amazing photographs I've seen of the Canyon.
But it wasn't until I looked over the Canyon rim and even hiked below the rim and into the Canyon that I realized the full grandeur, danger, scope, ferocity, beauty and reality of this geographical marvel. Everything I thought I "understood" about the canyon before just sort of shriveled up and was replaced with the real thing. Besides being confronted with the immensity of the Grand Canyon, I was also delighted with detail: every color, the flora, the shapes, the shadows, the thousands upon thousands of awe-inspiring sights.
In just the same way, there are untold numbers of people who know much about God. They've heard stories about Him while growing up, they've read about Him in books (even in His own book), they've formed opinions about Him and many can talk for hours about Him. But all of that is rubbish until they experience God personally. Up until that point, the human heart misjudges God. Man believes that God is smaller than He is, and that He is able to be contained within books of religion and philosophy. Natural man doesn't understand what the fear of the Lord really means, and misses completely the wonder of the multiplied mysteries of His ways. However, when a human soul finally sets foot on the canyon rim of God's reality, their life is forever changed.
5 comments:
When I visited the Grand Canyon, even though it lay there before me in it's vastness, I still had trouble comprehending just how great it was.
So great and wide and deep, one can only be still for a moment and attempt to soak it in while knowing that it's far beyond our ability to completely understand.
But I guess that's part of the wonder of it.
That's right. It's just too much! Kind of like God :) And a whole lot better than a picture on a page.
Great article.
Reminded me of this old quote from John Piper:
"Do people go to the Grand Canyon to increase their self-esteem? Probably not. This is, at least, a hint that the deepest joys in life come not from savoring the self, but from seeing splendor. And in the end even the Grand Canyon will not do. We were made to enjoy God."
Derek - that's a good quote from Piper. "We were made to enjoy God." I love that.
The vastness and awesomeness of our God is to big just like when we viewed all the differnet people groups in bible u last week and just difficult for me to grasp the bigness of God and his creation in his people and then to even catch this glimpse of the grand canyon is just beyond. so glad you were able to experience it! love you
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