Thoughts from the Grand Canyon

from Pat Morley

Volume 249
September 24, 2007

NOTE: I received 35 responses to last week’s Weekly Briefing on men’s reading habits. Thank you very much. I’m going through them now and will give you some feedback soon.

Patsy and I just spent the Labor Day weekend at the Grand Canyon. It was the first time for me.

When we pulled into the parking lot at Mather Point we couldn’t see the canyon yet. Instead, I thought I was on an errand to Wal-Mart! Cars and people were stacked everywhere. So I dropped Patsy off and hunted down a parking space.

What we didn’t know—and what none of the other first timers knew—was that we were only a few feet away from a parallel universe. We left Wal-Mart and walked through 50 feet of woods. We were transported into a words-escape-me, awe-inspiring, never-seen-anything-like-that, gasp-producing world. People were stunned, quiet, even reverent. What a difference 50 feet can make!

Those 50 feet remind me how life with God is so different from the daily hustle and bustle that most people experience. To the lost, life must feel like being stuck in a big parking lot. Being found must seem so distant, when it is really a parallel universe just a few steps away.

Long before anyone was stirring on our last morning, I sat by the rim and gazed at the stars and the shadowy forms cast by moonlight. Like millions before me, I was struck by the vastness and sheer size of the canyon.

God, why did you create the Grand Canyon? Do you need or want an audience to appreciate it? Or was it for your own pleasure? You created the Grand Canyon for your own glory. Thank you that I have been able to see it and share in your glory.

He wanted me to know, “You’re small, but important.”

For the glory of Christ and no other reason,

Pat Morley, Ph.D.