Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us. Luke 2:15
Stand on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and look as far as the eye can see in any direction. The sheer massiveness of this natural wonder overwhelms. Although we, like every other tourist, snapped a roll of film, no picture, video, or movie has ever captured the immenseness of this place. I felt dwarfed by the task of even attempting to reduce the vastness of God’s creation to a three by five snapshot. One must experience it to believe.
After the magnitude, which I never fully absorbed, the colors captivate me. How is it that so much rock in one area can be so many different colors from beach sand white to rust red to dark, boding purples and black? The sun and the atmosphere add to this broad spectrum. Our guide was delighted the sun shone so brightly because it casts shadows into the abyss, giving perspective to both depth and breadth.
As one climbs to the top of the rim, he travels through at least six ecosystems, each identified by the type of vegetation surviving in this desert mountain area. Likewise, the geological studies which have identified each layer of rock, explain that 80 million years ago, these lands first lay underwater near the equator. Shifts in ocean plates pushed the ground northward to where it now stands. However, the Colorado River which meanders through the canyon has been cutting through the rock for a mere seven million years. Rain and snow have added to the erosion of rock.
As much as I realized that no picture that I had ever seen did justice to the size of the Grand Canyon, it was a pair of photographers, the Cole Brothers, who so publicized this National Park that flocks of visitors, like migrating birds, have descended on this remote spot in Arizona just to see for themselves. The Coles were the first to film the entire area. When the Park Service refused to show the movie at the park, they traveled around the country to show it. After their national tour, they, like Pied Pipers leading the many tourists, returned to their studio which has since become a landmark at the Grand Canyon.
However, prospectors came long before the photographers. It didn’t take them long to realize that the challenge of removing copper from the canyon walls was too great a task. But, they soon began to give passersby rides on mules into the canyon for a dollar. And thus that way of traversing into the canyon became big business long before the area was a park. Because President Theodore Roosevelt loved to hunt in the area, he designated the Grand Canyon as a National Monument; and in 1919, Congress declared it a National Park. As I have witnessed an insatiable greed for land with each passing year, I am again grateful for the vision of President Teddy Roosevelt and his like-minded colleagues in the early twentieth century.
We rode a restored vintage train to the top of the rim and back. On each lap, personnel thanked us for using this mode of transportation and explained the importance of mass transportation in protecting the environment surrounding the Grand Canyon. On the ride back, we watched the sun set in a western sky as, simultaneously, a full moon rose in the east and between the two, a rainbow with colors as vivid as those in the canyon stretched from heaven to earth.
Our guide bade us farewell with this observation. “Life should not be measured in how many breaths we draw, but rather in how many moments take our breath.”
As I reflected on this breathtaking experience, Christmas kept interjecting itself. Then I realized the significance. The ever growing materialism of Christmas, and now the political battles about where to place nativity scenes, are as numerous as all the photographs ever taken at the Grand Canyon. This multitude of pictures has never replaced experience, but rather it instills a longing to see this creation of God for oneself.
Likewise, this holy season invites us to go far beyond the distracting trappings so that we might experience God’s love first hand in our own hearts. Like the shepherds, who longed for more than just seeing and hearing the sights and sounds of one miraculous night, we, too, must arise and go into Christmas. True celebration comes from the breathtaking experience within, the one that not only lingers but also directs our every action and word throughout the coming year.
May the blessings of this holy season make happy your new year.
2005
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