Views from Shoshone Point across the Grand Canyon. The photo doesn’t do the view justice.
A few years ago, some friends contacted us about visiting the Grand Canyon. They had never been, but were hopeful to take a trip in a few weeks to see it for the first time. We cheerfully complied in giving them more information than they ever needed, and they had a great time with their family on the canyon’s south rim. When they returned, we convinced them (it didn’t take much prodding) to come over to our house and show us their pictures.
Sunrise along the Grandview Trail
We had a great time seeing their pictures. In fact, I think we had more fun looking through the photos than they did.
Hiking the Tonto Trail west of the South Kaibab Trail
Why did we enjoy those pictures so much? Partially because the wife is an excellent photographer – and therefore captured some very nice shots – but there was more to our pleasure. We had been to the Grand Canyon before; we knew what it was like. We had experienced what they had experienced and therefore we could enjoy the falling-short-of-the-true-experience photos our friends had taken. It was almost like experiencing it over again, ourselves, with them.
A canyon along the Tonto Trail below Horseshoe Mesa
Photos fall short of what we see in the wilderness. Previous experience makes up for what is lacking in the pictures we see taken in various locations we have visited over the years.
A photo can’t capture the experience of seeing one, let alone two, geysers erupt. Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone
The same is true in our experience of God. Words don’t do Him justice – He simply cannot be defined in words. We can sing about the greatness of God – but His greatness cannot be defined by even the best song.
Frozen stream below Horsethief Falls, Colorado
Without an experience of God, He is little better than a nice picture.
Slickrock in Pioneer Park, Utah
He looks great, just like a picture of a snow-capped mountain or a lovely sunset. But without the experience of God, or the experience of what that trail through the mountains actually looked like, what the sunset actually felt like, it falls so far short of the truth.
Views across Lava Mountain, Wyoming
Once we have experienced Him, once we have experienced the beauty of a place, the words, the pictures, are far more than just an image.
Peaks above Cascade Pass, Washington
It’s like everything has suddenly become 3D. The Canyon is no longer a 2D intriguing photo; it’s living color, and we know what it looks like outside the photo, what the aura of the place felt like, the smells, the feeling of actually standing on the edge of the abyss. God is no longer a mythical idea expressed in words; He’s real, alive, active; you know what He feels like, what it’s like when He’s moving.
A little waterfall on Mt. Minsi, Pennsylvania
We appreciate pictures because of what we know is there. We appreciate testimonies because we have tasted and seen the same God who worked on behalf of the people in the story.
Hiking to the end of Horseshoe Mesa in the Grand Canyon
Experience, quite simply, brings the words, pictures, and ideas to life – in both our experience of the wilderness and in our experience of God.
