Small
"If you are really good, I will pull over at a certain place and show you a surprise," our guide told us at the beginning of our white water adventure in the Royal Gorge in Colorado. With that promise and a few simple instructions, we began to float toward our first rapid.
We came laughing and splashing over our first few rapids, laughing even more so after half the raft fell out of the boat in the second class II rapid. But then we got the nerves out of our way and manuevered solidly through the following class IV rapid. "Paddle five!" our guide yelled proudly as we all lifted our paddles in the air towards the middle of the boat, clanking them all together and smiling wide with water dripping off our chins and noses.
As promised, our guide pulled us into an eddy and instructed us to sit down on the bottom of the boat. "Now lean back and look up," he said. Oohs and Aahs came from every mouth as we gazed up from the bottom of the canyon. We were looking up the steep rocky walls of the Royal Gorge, and the blue sky looked like a slit between the rocks. Directly above us, crossing the canyon, was the Royal Gorge bridge, the world's highest suspension bridge which spans the Arkansas River at a height of 1053 feet. I saw the flecks of sky peeking through the boards of the bridge.
And I felt so very small.
A few days later, we awoke at 4:15 AM for a mountain climbing adventure. At 10,000 feet elevation, we began our ascent of Mt. Shavano at approximately 5:45 AM. Five and a half hours later, we reached our summit at 14,229 feet elevation. Finding the highest rock, I climbed up and spun around slowly. Mountains stretched out as far as I could see. The mountains closest to us were rocky, sharp, and daring. As my eyes gazed farther out, the moutains turned into darker and darker shades of blue and gray.
To the east, I could see the valley that we came from. It was so faded and distant that I felt as though I was seeing it from an airplane window. To the west, a little blue lake nestled in the ravines looked like a puddle that couldn't escape from the mountains. To the south, the alpine meadow that we ascended to reach the summit glowed green in the sunlight. Fellow trekkers looked like tiny black figurines slowly walking. To the North was another pointy peak, but we were definitely higher - higher than anything in our whole world at that point.
I twirled and raised my hands into the air, feeling the gentle wind and the intense sun. I whispered, "Thank you." And I felt so entirely small.
I love feeling small. It is only when I feel so insignificant that I know just how big my God is. When I begin to view myself as higher than I ought, I forget the greatness of God. But the tall mountains and the vast alpine meadows and the deep canyons and swift rivers remind me just how small and dependent I am...and just how sovereign and holy the Creator and Sustainer of this world is.
Not only does He form the moutains, guide the winds, and direct the rivers to carve out the canyons, but He also holds us. We might think that God favors the mountains or the sunsets as His prized handiwork, but His most valuable and treasures creation is us, for we are made in His image. And God could have chosen any place in the world to dwell. If I were Him, I would have chosen that breathtaking mountaintop. But in His love, He chose our desperate hearts as His dwelling place.
I love feeling so small. I love being so small. In our dependency on Him, we can truly see how big and beautiful He is.
We came laughing and splashing over our first few rapids, laughing even more so after half the raft fell out of the boat in the second class II rapid. But then we got the nerves out of our way and manuevered solidly through the following class IV rapid. "Paddle five!" our guide yelled proudly as we all lifted our paddles in the air towards the middle of the boat, clanking them all together and smiling wide with water dripping off our chins and noses.
As promised, our guide pulled us into an eddy and instructed us to sit down on the bottom of the boat. "Now lean back and look up," he said. Oohs and Aahs came from every mouth as we gazed up from the bottom of the canyon. We were looking up the steep rocky walls of the Royal Gorge, and the blue sky looked like a slit between the rocks. Directly above us, crossing the canyon, was the Royal Gorge bridge, the world's highest suspension bridge which spans the Arkansas River at a height of 1053 feet. I saw the flecks of sky peeking through the boards of the bridge.
And I felt so very small.
A few days later, we awoke at 4:15 AM for a mountain climbing adventure. At 10,000 feet elevation, we began our ascent of Mt. Shavano at approximately 5:45 AM. Five and a half hours later, we reached our summit at 14,229 feet elevation. Finding the highest rock, I climbed up and spun around slowly. Mountains stretched out as far as I could see. The mountains closest to us were rocky, sharp, and daring. As my eyes gazed farther out, the moutains turned into darker and darker shades of blue and gray.
To the east, I could see the valley that we came from. It was so faded and distant that I felt as though I was seeing it from an airplane window. To the west, a little blue lake nestled in the ravines looked like a puddle that couldn't escape from the mountains. To the south, the alpine meadow that we ascended to reach the summit glowed green in the sunlight. Fellow trekkers looked like tiny black figurines slowly walking. To the North was another pointy peak, but we were definitely higher - higher than anything in our whole world at that point.
I twirled and raised my hands into the air, feeling the gentle wind and the intense sun. I whispered, "Thank you." And I felt so entirely small.
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| Mt. Shavavo, the highest peak you see here |
I love feeling small. It is only when I feel so insignificant that I know just how big my God is. When I begin to view myself as higher than I ought, I forget the greatness of God. But the tall mountains and the vast alpine meadows and the deep canyons and swift rivers remind me just how small and dependent I am...and just how sovereign and holy the Creator and Sustainer of this world is.
Not only does He form the moutains, guide the winds, and direct the rivers to carve out the canyons, but He also holds us. We might think that God favors the mountains or the sunsets as His prized handiwork, but His most valuable and treasures creation is us, for we are made in His image. And God could have chosen any place in the world to dwell. If I were Him, I would have chosen that breathtaking mountaintop. But in His love, He chose our desperate hearts as His dwelling place.
I love feeling so small. I love being so small. In our dependency on Him, we can truly see how big and beautiful He is.
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