What do you say in the face of millions of years of geological history that leaves massive and sometimes fragile forms of stone? "Wow" doesn't quite convey the power of the experience.
And what do you say about the deer who made a mistake of judgment and didn't make it across the interstate safely? And the driver who didn't see him/her until the impact? "Forgive us," perhaps.
"Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras" says Brahms in his "German Requiem." The Psalmist and I Peter have similar thoughts: "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falleth away."
How short are our years, especially in the context of the sweep of human history, geology and evolution! And how quickly they can end.
The formations of stone in Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon had that effect on me, especially coming in the context of an undriveable and broken car, a dead deer, Interstate highway traffic, and retirement.
The formations, especially in Zion, were simply awesome and awe-inspiring. The word the rangers said Zion meant was "sanctuary." I took that to mean safety but also a place of the Holy. Maybe in the context of the Holy, our lives may be as grass, but they are not insignificant and each life adds meaning to the sweep of human history. And together, as a world of nearly 7 billion human beings, we make our mark on this "third rock from the Sun."
My wish is that our human spirit can live up to our highest sensitivities and sensibilities, and that we can see that and encourage that in each other.
This prayer in the funeral service has always spoken to me, especially the phrase, "since we know not what a day may bring forth...":
"Eternal God, who commits to us the swift and solemn trust of life: since we know not what a day may bring forth, but only that the hour for serving You is always present, may we wake to Your instant claims, not waiting for tomorrow, but yielding today. Lay to rest the resistance of our passion, indolence, or fear. Consecrate the way our feet may go, and the humblest work will shine, and the roughest places be made plain. Lift us above unrighteous anger and mistrust into faith and hope and charity, through steady reliance on You. So may we be modest in our time of wealth, patient under disappointment, ready for danger, serene in death. In all things, draw us to Yourself that Your lost image may be traced again, and we may be at one with You."
I suspect that being at one with the Holy will put us at one with each other...