Sand Creek Canyon - Death Valley '10
2 Corinthians 3
16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflecta]">[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
This picture was taken on one of our hikes through Sand Creek Canyon. That crag was about thirty feet high, and it took quite a lot of maneuvering to scale the shale rock that crumbles beneath your feet. The wind picks up sharply at odd intervals and this was pretty much the only one out of about fifteen pictures where the veil was fully picked up by the wind.
So, I was looking for a scripture having to do with a veil--and there were a lot of Old Testament mentions of a purple veil, but this New Testament verse stuck with me more than those others.
When we give our lives to Jesus, he removes the veil from our faces so that we can reflect His glory. We know that we are made in his image, but we only truly being to resemble Him when we surrender ourselves to Him so that He can free us from the bondage of this world. But the freedom we seek, that compels us to turn to Him, is found only with the Spirit. It's "where the Spirit of the Lord is," so we must go with the Spirit to maintain our freedom.
In other words, we can't just turn to Him, and then go our own way later because we fall right back into the chains we left. If we are to live to His glory and honor Him with our lives, then we must remain with Him and allow Him to transform us. It is a huge privilege to be chosen to reflect the glory of God Almighty. Look around you and you will see His glory, and imagine if our lives reflect even a fraction of that.
Lend me your imagination as I describe the canyon we visited for this picture.
His love waits for us for ages and ages until the day we finally turn to Him and allow Him to make a masterpiece of our lives. And the masterpiece He will work out of us will be more magnificent than any geological phenomenon--greater than any of nature's best. It has to be, because He made us to be like Him. He will make our lives so wonderful as to be worthy of bearing His name and reflecting His glory. And then He will make us greater still.
How about that? Can you even imagine? Just try. :)
16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflecta]">[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
This picture was taken on one of our hikes through Sand Creek Canyon. That crag was about thirty feet high, and it took quite a lot of maneuvering to scale the shale rock that crumbles beneath your feet. The wind picks up sharply at odd intervals and this was pretty much the only one out of about fifteen pictures where the veil was fully picked up by the wind.
So, I was looking for a scripture having to do with a veil--and there were a lot of Old Testament mentions of a purple veil, but this New Testament verse stuck with me more than those others.
When we give our lives to Jesus, he removes the veil from our faces so that we can reflect His glory. We know that we are made in his image, but we only truly being to resemble Him when we surrender ourselves to Him so that He can free us from the bondage of this world. But the freedom we seek, that compels us to turn to Him, is found only with the Spirit. It's "where the Spirit of the Lord is," so we must go with the Spirit to maintain our freedom.
In other words, we can't just turn to Him, and then go our own way later because we fall right back into the chains we left. If we are to live to His glory and honor Him with our lives, then we must remain with Him and allow Him to transform us. It is a huge privilege to be chosen to reflect the glory of God Almighty. Look around you and you will see His glory, and imagine if our lives reflect even a fraction of that.
Lend me your imagination as I describe the canyon we visited for this picture.
The walls and crags on both side of the narrow path jutted out of the ground at incredible angles.
The slopes looked as though they might topple over and collapse at any moment yet they stood silently still. Years ago some catastrophic quake must have rocked the earth and violently shifted these crags, but now they rest. Upon closer examination, the walls of stone are found to be thousands and hundreds of thousands of layers of shale. You can peel away the cliffs one layer at a time, and crumble the thin slivers of stone in your palm. Each layer bore a different shade and pattern of stone, delicate on its own, but massive and strong when compressed together.
When the bright sunlight hits these walls, the reflection is almost blinding. How great is our God to shape the walls of these canyons and shift them as he pleases, then stabilize them impossibly to allow us the pleasure of viewing them? How great is our God to leave such masterpieces in nature to show us His glory? How great is our God to allow us to reflect this same glory in our own lives? How can we portray the slightest measure of the majesty of these mountains and cliffs in ourselves?
It is simple. Through His love.
God does not love the mountains and hills or any part of nature like He loves us.
His love waits for us for ages and ages until the day we finally turn to Him and allow Him to make a masterpiece of our lives. And the masterpiece He will work out of us will be more magnificent than any geological phenomenon--greater than any of nature's best. It has to be, because He made us to be like Him. He will make our lives so wonderful as to be worthy of bearing His name and reflecting His glory. And then He will make us greater still.
How about that? Can you even imagine? Just try. :)
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