🎶 We are weak but He is strong 🎶

Those are the the first words that went through my head when I stood next to the rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time. I felt extremely…. small…. I guess that’s the (inadequate) word to use.

The Grand Canyon is like a speck of dust to the Lord – an indentation on the created globe that fits into His hands.

To us – it’s overwhelmingly large, dangerously different than anything we are used to, hard to even take in and orient around.

That chill I felt from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet when I saw the Canyon for the first time…. was certainly because of an overload on my physical senses…. but also it is a spiritual experience. The Lord’s presence is always with us, of course, but the Canyon seems to accentuate the BIGness of Him who is infinitely bigger than this biggest-thing-we-ever-saw! Such inadequate words.

How could a super-sized ditch stir up in me a fresh fear of the Lord? A strong desire to show Him the reverence and awe He deserves?

Certainly the canyon’s beauty stirs us to want to praise the Lord as Creator…..but there’s more to it than its beauty.

This Canyon, perhaps more than any part of His creation, shows the severity of sin and God’s wrath and judgment… AND therefore proclaims the gospel and the scandalous grace He offers as rescue from judgement.

It’s true that “He’s got the whole world in His hands” and one can look at the beauty here and be amazed at His artistry… but when you believe, like we do, that this Canyon is proof of the violent and all encompassing flood from the Lord’s hands… it stirs up reverence and an understanding of how holy and perfect and HUGE He is …. and how short we fall in all ways.

This Canyon wasn’t formed at creation…. but instead is evidence of the utter destruction we deserve, and have been saved from.

No more cutesy Noah’s ark pictures of smiling happy animals on a little boat in calm water for us. We have a new picture and understanding of the terror-inducing, violent, catastrophic flood and the storms preceding it.

But the good news!!!! As quickly as fear of the Lord rises up in us with an understanding of how we need to keep a HIGH and HOLY view of Him……. He then whispers to us….but my child – never again!

Never again will He flood the earth like this. Never again will we have to face His judgment or wrath…. for we can be completely and perfectly covered with the robe of righteousness given in Jesus… if we would just believe.

Until we grasp the severity of sin and how un-able we are to make ourselves right-eous…His scandalous grace can’t truly get ahold of us.

BUT it can get ahold of us!!!! The good news of Jesus! What He saves us from and saved us to should daily make us shout with joy and thankfulness in our hearts, even if not loudly from our mouths.

His grace, mercy, and love are truly greater then we can fathom. Like we learned in Marathon Texas… when we have surrendered and stopped trying to have a righteousness of our own…. our sins are infinitely-far away from us. East from West. It’s finished.

From the moment we surrender to His love – and forward – it’s a daily walk WITH Him, never again alone… a walk home to the place He is preparing for us. And along the way we learn to trust Him more and learn to depend on Him more more more.

The more we depend on Him, the more we are full of His Spirit…. and the more we are full of His Spirit….the more we are like Him and believe what HE says is true about us… and we become what we believe about ourselves. He says we are His children, lambs, ambassadors… we are forgiven, loved, cleansed, blameless, righteous.

Like the canyon itself… the experience at the canyon stirs up many layers and diversity of truths.

The rocks are truly shouting His praise! Praising the Lord Jesus as Creator yes…. but also Holy and High One…..Savior…. The Redeemer (even bringing unspeakable beauty out of total destruction)….. and someday again, the Judge.

This trip has given us more overwhelming evidence that our Creator is more AWEsome than we can imagine, Higher than we can grasp, and more loving and personal than we can dream.

Though floods of life will come….

when we accept His LORDship and sovereignty over all …

… He then comforts us and reminds us that His promises remain – for those who believe in Him.

He promises….we will be spared from His wrath (Romans 5:9) – He will never leave nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) – He will use all things for good (Rom 8:28) – He is good even when life is crushing and heartbreaking…. and so many more promises!

RR expressed the following observation about the canyon – and I think it applies to our pursuit of Jesus:

The more time we spend looking, the more beauty there is to see… we could never see or enjoy it all! I could spend forever doing this!

I pray that you are being blessed by how the Lord has been leading our family and revealing His hand and heart to us.

Please do come back and read following posts about what we learned at the canyon seeing it from a creationist viewpoint. Talk about mind-blown! We went on a tour with Canyon Ministries and we were truly touched. We have so much to share!

Until then… Happy Resurrection Day! Jesus is alive!!! And He is coming back!!!! Are you ready to see Him face to face!?

In Christ alone my hope is found / He is my light, my strength, my song / This Cornerstone, this solid ground / Firm through the fiercest drought and storm / What heights of love, what depths of peace / When fears are stilled, when strivings cease / My Comforter, my All in All / Here in the love of Christ I stand. (In Christ Alone)