Posted on September 28, 2013
Grand Canyon: Beauty Through Pain
The Grand Canyon truly is marvelous and incredibly beautiful. At first glance, most Christians would think of the wondrous creation works of God when they see this incredible monument to the power of God. However, God did not make the Grand Canyon, or most of our geologic wonders of the world, during creation week. They were a result of the flood – God’s fierce judgment for the wickedness of man. God is holy and pure, He hates evil. God will not be mocked and see His precious people pollute His image. Jesus is our Living Water, but if we pour that living water on the ground by refusing His righteousness that He offers to us through His grace, that same water will end up drowning us, just like the flood of Noah’s day.
Yes, God’s fierce anger was poured out, destroying the earth during the flood. Yet, the flood is also an incredible testament to the grace of God as well as His fierce judgment. God could have left us with an ugly earth after the flood – we would have deserved it. But, in God’s great mercy and compassion to us (as well as His love of beauty), He gave us something beautiful instead. God formed the Grand Canyon not only in His judgment, but also in His incredible grace. God loves beauty, so He gave us beauty through the pain and righteous judgment of the flood. Without the flood, we would not have the Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains, or Yellowstone. Not only did God provide beauty through the flood, but He also gave us practical things like coal, natural oil, gypsum (for things like sheetrock and chalk), and flint.
God gave us beauty through the pain of the flood He sent in His righteous judgment, but what about personal suffering, especially when we haven’t done anything wrong? What about our pain, heartache, troubles, and death – does God still see, and does He care? Absolutely. Isaiah 53:3-4 calls Jesus a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” and says that “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows”. Like Job, our suffering may not be the result of some specific sin. It is hard to understand why God lets bad things happen to good people. The reason we have suffering in our world is not because God chose to inflict pain upon us, but because of our choice to disobey God way back in the Garden of Eden. The reason why we suffer is generally because of a loss of or lack of some blessing, but we didn’t even deserve those blessings in the first place. Truth be known, none of us deserve to be alive at all right now. It is only by the grace and mercy of God.
Although we never understand it at the time (sometimes we will not understand until we meet our Maker face to face), God can use our sufferings to create something beautiful, just like He did during the flood. God can create a beautiful Grand Canyon through your sufferings. Now, that doesn’t mean that our sufferings are any less terrible or painful. Knowing the truth about suffering doesn’t necessarily make it easier. Suffering is hard, and God doesn’t ask us just to “get over it”. We should grieve, let ourselves cry and be comforted by friends, most importantly a Heavenly Friend. In Psalm 56:8, David says, “put Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?” God sees our sufferings, and He is willing to make something beautiful out of them.
I often think of how the most beautiful landscapes in the world were formed by the Flood. It is great to pull this reality into our own lives. The beauty may be harder to spot, but it is there!