"Grand Canyon", oil, by Karen Winters |
A dear friend is finding his way through tough times these days, and, surprisingly, it has started me thinking about the Grand Canyon. It would be so easy to feel “sorry” for this friend, to pity and sympathize and commiserate with him, but that would be viewing him as a fragile and pitiful person. That would be like bending down to offer help to the hopeless, and this friend is far from hopeless. In fact, he is as grand as the Grand Canyon, something I hope to help him clearly see in the next few weeks. He was made by the same universe that made the stars that flash above us, and therefore he is just as extraordinary. The Grand Canyon was carved over billions of years, and so, in a very true sense, was my friend -- carved out in magnificence by the mysterious processes of the universe. Somehow the cosmos came to a point, a few decades ago, where my friend floated into existence, every bit as breathtaking, in his special way, as the canyon created by the Colorado River. This is what he needs to know -- not that he has an overwhelming, unworkable problem, but that he is as majestic as the mightiest rivers and seas. He was made by the same force that set sunrises and sunsets going, that gives us winds and starlight, that spins the earth the same way century after century. Does this “problem” really think it can cause him to hang his head and feel hopeless? Does wind think it can create confusion for the Grand Canyon?
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