Cedarville Magazine, Summer 2021

THE GRAND CANYON BY JOHN WHI TMORE Believe it or not, when most people visit the rim of the Grand Canyon, they take a couple of selfies, gaze for a few minutes, check an item off their “bucket list,” and leave — all averaging less than 15 minutes! If you get a chance to visit the Grand Canyon, I suggest you spend a little more time than the average tourist. Hike a short distance down one of the Canyon’s many trails, take your Bible and some water, find a shady spot, and spend an hour contemplating the following: § The rock layers that you see before you were made during the global Flood of Noah and resulted directly from God’s judgment on man’s sin (Gen. 6:5–8). By the way, the Canyon itself was cut following the Flood. The layers in the Grand Canyon are typical of marine rocks that cover every continent. As you consider the vast expanse of the rocks and realize that similar rocks occur worldwide, the consequences of sin should be rather sobering. § God turns ashes into beauty (Isa. 61:3). God takes the ugliness of our lives and transforms them into something beautiful. The ugliness of sin caused the layers in the Grand Canyon, but they have been transformed into something that is now breathtaking. § You can’t begin to appreciate the size of the Canyon unless you’ve actually been down in it. As the crow flies, the distance from Grand Canyon Village to the North Rim is about 12 miles wide and the chasm between is nearly a mile deep. The hike from rim to rim is more than 20 miles. Thinking about the vast size of the Canyon, read Isaiah 40 and contemplate how big and truly awesome God is! § Read Psalm 104 and notice the great care God has for His creation. Note the special emphasis on water and the role that it plays in creation and judgment. § Read Psalm 103 and contemplate God’s care for each one of us as individuals. Despite the vastness and greatness of His creation, He deeply cares for each one of us — much more than the height of the heavens above the earth (v. 11). And, He casts our sins as far as the east is from the west (v.12). John Whitmore is Senior Professor of Geology and has been to the Grand Canyon dozens of times since his first trip in 1979, which includes 16 raft trips with Canyon Ministries and Answers in Genesis. Cedarville now has more than 40 geology graduates from the program he began in 2009. Whitmore earned his Ph.D. in biology with a paleontology emphasis from Loma Linda University. Cedarville Magazine | 11