Into the Canyon, part 3

He Knows My Name

I'm posting this a little sooner than I usually do, but life is about to get really busy for a couple of weeks and I wanted to end with this...

I’ve been thinking a lot about our trip to the Grand Canyon, trying to process all that overwhelmed my senses, my thoughts, my heart. There is something about being in nature that makes God so visible to me. His presence is almost tangible there. 

As we hiked into the canyon that day, I was overwhelmed by the most unexpected sense of fierce, powerful, dangerous beauty. The canyon walls rise on one side of the trail and they fall sharply off on the other side. I’m afraid of heights, but oddly I was never really afraid. As we turned so many corners, I would gasp in sheer delight and wonder.  Every little bit I would grin and say, “Scott, we’re IN the Grand Canyon.”  Many times, throughout the day, we would stop and try to take it all in. For as far the eye could see, there was beauty and majesty and a breathtaking sense of power and might.

I’ve read so many people comment about how small they felt in the Grand Canyon, and I would stop from time to time to see if that was how I felt. But it wasn’t… as I reflect back on the hours in the Canyon, there is a passage of Scripture that comes to mind, Psalms 8:3-4, “When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”

That is how I feel about our time there… I am overwhelmed that He knows my name, that He loves Me, that He engraved my name on the palm of His hands when Jesus died on the cross for us, so that we could come into His presence and be in relationship with Him. God, who is so powerful and holy, wants to have a relationship with each one of us, that is heart and mind boggling.

And I am also overwhelmed and filled with gratitude when I think of how His Word says that He knit us together in our mother’s womb. That is so personal, so intimate, so attentive to detail… Each of us are wonders of His making and He loves us beyond our wildest imagination. 

It reminds me to look at my fellow human beings with the same kind of wonder that I look at nature, every one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made, in HIS image. And it also reminds me to treat my fellow human beings, with the same kind of respect and kindness that I show in nature as I’m careful not to leave behind anything that could be harmful to the creatures or the land. What if I intentionally set out each day to only leave goodness, love, kindness, compassion and joy in my wake? 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, celebrate and be thankful that you are LOVED by the Creator, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. I'll leave you with a few more of my favorite photos. (You can click on the photos and they'll enlarge.)