My wife and I returned yesterday from a weeklong trip to the Grand Canyon (and surrounding areas). Words fail. Photos, too. The canyon is so vast and varied that it is impossible to capture in words or even photographs.
At every overlook, I stood slack-jawed, trying to take in the canyon's incredible array of formations, and the colors and shapes that seemed to change every few minutes depending on how the sunlight played across them.
Although many people have speculated about how Arizona's Grand Canyon came to be, no one knows. The dominant theory is that it developed into its current shape over a period of two billion years through a protracted process involving volcanic eruptions, sandstorms, and erosion.
Recorded human history spans only about 6,000 to 10,000 years (that's roughly 0.005% of two billion years), so the "billions of years" hypothesis clearly depends on theoretical models and multiple assumptions about things we can't know for sure.
Some scientists, usually Christians, believe that the canyon was formed directly by the Noahic Flood described in the Book of Genesis. However, we still don't really know.
A response of wonder
As I stood in awe before the Grand Canyon, theories about its origin seemed relatively unimportant. Instead, a passage in Job came to mind — one that pointedly reminds us of our smallness and limited knowledge.
Then the Lord [spoke to] Job out of the whirlwind and said...
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements..."On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb...and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?"Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?...
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?..."Who has put wisdom in the inward parts
or given understanding to the mind?"Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine."
[selected verses from Job 38-41]
Servants, yet friends
The God who spoke to Job from the whirlwind is the same God we worship. He is the God Most High (Hebrews 7:1), mighty in majesty and power (1 Chronicles 29:11), the "Creator of the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 40:28).
Sign at Hermit's Rest at the Grand Canyon
He is the one who spoke the heavens and the earth into existence (Genesis 1-2). He "made the world and everything in it" (Acts 17:24), though we cannot know how or when.
What we do know is that, out of his boundless love, this transcendent and all-powerful God condescended to come to us small and finite creatures. In Jesus Christ the Son, God entered into the very world he created, and through Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, he opened a door to forgive sins and grant newness of life.
Because of Christ, we are no longer merely creatures or even servants, although surely we are both. Now, the Most High God has entrusted us to be his stewards (Matthew 25:14). Jesus even says that if we follow his commandments, we are his friends (John 15:14-15).
In a way, such vast and deep truths are like the Grand Canyon itself. They are impossible to grasp fully. Even as we contemplate the Lord's revelation of who he is and what he has done for us, we discover there is always more to ponder. And our response to him — in love, faith, prayer, gratitude, sacrifice, and stewardship — is the work of a lifetime.
