On this day in history, January 11th in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt named the Grand Canyon as a national monument.
Roosevelt, an enthusiastic conservationist, secured 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon area into a national monument and declared, “Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. “You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.”[1] Today more than five million people visit the Grand Canyon annually and marvel at its rugged dessert beauty.
The Grand Canyon is more than a national monument. It is a monument of God’s creation that points people to His nature — mighty, vast, and majestic. [2] God desires to be known and the Grand Canyon allows the five million plus people who visit to know and hopefully behold Him.
God also uses nature to tell His story. The Grand Canyon monument is a visual representation of a grand chasm that divides the holy God and sinful man. Beholding the Grand Canyon reminds us of Jesus who in His life, death and resurrection, bridged the great chasm so that all those who believe in Him can be united with God and imputed with His righteousness for eternity.
As Phil Wickham sings:
“How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke your name into the night
Then through the darkness
Your loving kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope.” [3]
Seeing the Grand Canyon should remind us of that living hope of Christ. The Lord is big and we are small. The Lord is mighty and we are weak. The chasm is great, but Jesus is greater.
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