Grand Canyon

It is one of the most majestic places on the earth. It overwhelms the senses to stand and try to take it in all at once. Which, at 277 miles long, 18 miles wide and a mile deep, is impossible from standing at its edge. The Grand Canyon is beautiful and inspiring. Its power is hard to ignore. Scholars cannot agree on the exact age of the Canyon, but most agree it is very old and has been around for millennia.

For all its beauty and tranquility the Grand Canyon can be a rather inhospitable place. It is found in the middle of a desert. The temperatures in the day time can soar above 100 degrees and in winter get so cold, especially along the northern rim, to snow and fall below freezing. The Canyon has been home to many people through the ages. Hardy people who made their homes amid the rock and hard scrabble of the cliffs and along its edge.

It is rather incredible to think that all it took to create the place – besides a whole lot of time – was just some wind and water. The Colorado River runs through the Canyon. And experts hold that it is the river and its streams that are mostly responsible for the Canyon's formation. The water coursing over and against the solid rock sediment cuts it like a knife changing the shape of the Canyon and revealing new levels of rock.

The wind equally has influence on the ever changing shape of the Canyon. The constant blowing of the wind through the Canyon caresses its walls and lifts sediment from its sides. That sediment then rubs against the walls farther down further influencing its shape and design. Ice, snow and storms share some of the load as well.  The Canyon was created long ago but it appears to be a canyon in the midst of its creation.

While on the one hand the Canyon is aged and ancient, it is still being formed and made into what it is to become. Perhaps you visited the Canyon when you were a child, stood on its edge, hiked its trails or rode a donkey down to the river. Go back; you will not see the same Canyon you saw. God is not finished with the Grand Canyon.

Everyday God sends wind, rain, ice, and the mighty Colorado River to work on his majestic masterpiece. Everyday He sculpts His creation into the vision of perfection He has for it. Everyday the Canyon gets a little closer to God’s perfect glory.

You and I see God’s perfect glory already when we gaze at the Canyon's stunning beauty at sunset and marvel at its many colors. We are already in awe as we float along the river and look at the walls standing protection over us that are as old as the earth and as precious as anything on it. You and I fly over the Canyon in an airplane and look down and are able to take in its true vastness and are amazed that anything could ever be grander.

God sees the Canyon and knows it is beautiful. He knows it is good. (Gen. 1:10)  But God rarely stops at good. He wants more. That is why He will never stop working on His Canyon. And that is why He will never stop working on us.

God uses the same tools on us He uses on the Canyon. He uses wind, rain storms, ice and water – Living Water (John 7:38) – to shape and carve us. Don't be put off, look at that Canyon, God can do amazing things with wind and water.  When God looks at us He knows we are beautiful and He knows we are good. But He also knows the plans He has laid out for us. Like the Grand Canyon we are a work in progress.

God didn’t stop working on His masterpiece the day He created it. He is going to keep sending the water and wind to carve, shape and reveal all the colors until it reaches His glorious perfection.

He’s going to keep working on the Grand Canyon too.
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