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Week Four Ramblings
and Pictures
Zion –
even the name evokes powerful emotions. Named by
early Mormon settlers, Zion National Park is a
"place of refuge”. Zion is mentioned in the Hebrew
Bible more than 150 times – the use of the word
expanding from Mount Zion to eventually encompass
the entire Promised Land.
This is the first national park I have left wishing
I had more time to explore and take refuge. It is
such a great place, with places like Angel’s Landing
and Court of the Patriarchs (cliffs named for
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) that seem larger than
life.
The week has been filled with long hikes, sometimes
grueling, yet always exhilarating. One hike stands
out as a really unique experience – the Narrows. We
started out early in the day, geared up with our
special canyoneer rental shoes, and walked steadily
upstream in the Virgin riverbed as the canyon walls
continued to grow narrower and taller, towering
hundreds of feet above us. The temperature for the
day was over 100 degrees, but down in the canyon,
with the water temperature in the mid 60’s it was
just right. Six hours in the river…from an early age
I have loved rock hopping in the NC mountains, and
this was the ultimate river walk!
One of the distinct features of Zion is the hanging
gardens. Water literally seeps out of the sandstone
to provide nourishment for plants that seem to grow
right out of the rock. If that’s not amazing enough,
we were told that the water travels 1000’s of feet
from the top of the formations, through the
sandstone, until it reaches harder rock like shale,
and then is forced out into crevices and cracks. The
process takes at least 800 years, and up to 4000
years! In a moment pregnant with baptismal renewal,
while hiking the Narrows, Daniel stuck his head
under one of the flows, and was refreshed by ancient
water!
Everything at Zion seems huge – some of the largest
sandstone formations in the world. I would look down
on the buses and the people from the ascended
heights our hikes allowed, and be reminded of how
tiny we are in relation to the grandeur of creation.
Our time here is such a small thing, here and then
gone, a mere speck in the sweep of history, we
credit ourselves with more, perhaps, than we ought.
It’s hard not to feel a bit of humility in a place
like this…
Ray Charles describes soulfulness as the ability to
respond from our deepest place. That is the journey
we are all on, to find within ourselves that quiet,
still place that evokes our deepest longings, our
most compassionate love, our God created desire for
caring community that matters. I pray our
journey will lead us beside the still nurturing
waters of the Spirit, and that we will respond from
our deepest place.
Click here for a slideshow of pictures |
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