Have you ever had a close friend that was very different from you? I do and I have known her most of my life. So, how different are we? While she loves westerns, I love science fiction. Her dream was to go out west or to be in a real wagon train. Mine was to be on the bridge of the USS Enterprise or riding on a dinosaur with Holly in the “Land of the Lost.” Yep, that’s pretty different, but it worked.
A few years ago, she got married. Her husband took her out west on a trip of a life time. They took two weeks off of work and drove out to somewhere in Arizona. Before they left, he asked me about taking a small detour from their route to take her to the Grand Canyon. “Yes, that’s an awesome idea! She’ll love it.” I replied. Boy, was I wrong. In my defense, I thought he was going to take her to the visitor’s center there.
She called that night after their Grand Canyon visit. I could tell by the sound of her voice something was wrong. Very wrong. She said when they parked at the Grand Canyon, she felt very uneasy about being so close to such a big hole. After she got out of their truck and got a better view, terror overcame her. Instead of getting back into the truck, she went to the bed of the truck and clung to the sides of it for dear life as she cried. She told me, “It felt as if that big hole was trying to suck me down into it!”
I made a comment about the guardrails; to which she replied, “What guardrails? There wasn’t any. It was just that gigantic pit!” Instead of driving all the way to the visitor’s center, her husband just pulled up somewhere around the rim of it and parked. She couldn’t understand why he would do such a thing. That’s when I came clean and told her what I had told him. Naturally, I apologized to her. Then I apologized to her husband. He said, “I have never seen anything like that before and I was in the Navy. She was beyond consoling. I tried to get her to get back inside the truck so we could leave, but she couldn’t let go of the sides of the truck bed. I literally had to pry her hands off of it. Her fingerprints are probably still embedded in it.”
“Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and we were created.” Revelation 4:11 (KJV)
Did you expect me to use a bible verse about fear? Actually, I wanted to take a different approach on this one since the story took place at the Grand Canyon. Unlike my friend, I have never been there, but I have seen some amazingly beautiful pictures and videos of it. Personally, I don’t know how anybody could look at such beauty, or any beauty in nature, and think it was created by chance and/or some kind of chaos. It was created The Lord and that shows just who He is.
Have you ever heard of the Grand Canyon Skywalk? It is a completely transparent walkway in the shape of a horseshoe that goes out over the Grand Canyon. It would be like walking on air above the canyon. You could look down and see all the way to the canyon floor. If somebody made me walk on it, I wouldn’t just be crying like my friend. Oh no, I would be on my hands and knees and praying until I crawled off it.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.