Our Trip to the Grand Canyon

So when planning our trip from New Jersey to Southern California, one of the places I immediately insisted being a "stopping point" along the way was the Grand Canyon. Neither Janna nor I had ever been there, and it's always heralded as such a breathtaking sight that it just seemed like an obvious stop. Plus, John Piper has referred to it numerous times in his preaching to affirm humanity's tacit awareness that being made much of is not the greatest longing of the human heart, but rather it is to be made to feel small and insignificant while beholding breathtaking glory and splendor.

So we went. Enjoy some pictures!

So close, and yet so far.

Finally, enjoy a video. Maybe it'll help give you a sense of the vastness of the Canyon.

Nobody stands on the edge of the Alps or the Rockies or the Grand Canyon in order to go there to feel better about ourselves. Do you know why you go there? Because you were [designed] to be satisfied with splendor, not self. You were created and a law written on your heart to be infinitely, eternally, fully, joyfully satisfied in a grand splendor not a great self. I plead with you lay it down. Lay down your quest for the applause of men, the approval of men, and begin to get on a quest for the one thing that will satisfy your soul—the splendor of Jesus Christ and all that God is for you in him. I just plead with you for your own soul's infinite happiness that you will stop pursuing it in the wrong place.
- John Piper -

For by Him all things were created,
both in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--
all things
have been created through Him
and for Him.

He is before all things,
and in Him all things hold together.
He is also head of the body, the church;
and He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that He Himself will come to have
first place
in everything.

- Colossians 1:16-18 -