Mtr Mary Trainor

We could say more but could never say enough…*

Dear friend,

The Grand Canyon. I was nearly 50 years old when I saw it. If you haven’t been, you owe it to yourself to do so as soon as possible.

Sure, I had seen spectacular photographs, including ones similar to the one at the end of this reflection. But none of them, NONE of them, is any substitute for the actual experience.

In addition to standing dumbstruck at the edge of the south rim, I also took the helicopter ride, and was lucky enough to get the seat in that bubble at the front. Nothing obstructed my view of the turquoise river below, wending its way through the canyon to a faraway place beyond my sight. I can think of nothing else in my life that comes even close to the sheer magnificence of God’s creativity as that ride in a little helicopter dancing this way and that through the curves of a canyon.

We could say more but could never say enough…

In today’s reading from Ecclesiasticus the author sings the praises of God’s creation: The pride of the higher realms is the clear vault of the sky…it is the moon that marks the changing seasons…the glory of the stars is the beauty of heaven…

Saint Philip’s is focusing on creation care as a theological principle in its 2022-2023 program year. There is much to consider in this topic area, and I am sure it cannot be comprehensively covered in only a few months’ time. Or perhaps even in a lifetime.

But this I suspect from my own experience: As clever and creative and intelligent as humankind might be, we just cannot top the Master. We cannot build a Grand Canyon. We cannot fashion a bird to cross continents and back, guided by instinct alone. We cannot make another polar bear once the last one is gone, once the final ice floe has melted.

For the gift of a world filled with treasure and beauty, dear God, may I ever be grateful.

We could say more but could never say enough….

Mtr Mary

*Ecclesiasticus 43:27