Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, March 30, 2023
I’m using another of my pictures of the Grand Canyon this week since it is a difficult place to get to. In our case, there happened to be snowstorms that made traveling uncertain. The Grand Canyon is near desert areas, but since it is at 7000 feet elevation, it can get winter weather. In this picture, a storm is visible on the opposite rim. One morning we woke up to six inches of snow.
Besides the weather, the Grand Canyon offers a study in geology. As a creationist, it makes me ponder the mysteries. The canyon does not offer conclusive answers. People tend to try to find proof for their own viewpoint, so I’ll try to avoid stating any conclusions, but I had a few observations. In studying the museum information, there are marine fossils like shells in some layers and some land fossils like insects and plants in other layers. Some dinosaur footprints were reported in the Coconino layer which is one of the yellowish layers near the top. The nps.gov web site says that the Grand Canyon only shows about 30% of Earth’s geologic history.
With my limited knowledge I’m guessing that most of the layers were deposited before the flood and a few layers after the flood. Sometime after the flood, continental movement caused uplift that raised the area to its current level. Then erosion started occurring to form the canyon. That might be stating too much, and I don’t really know.
Even though the Grand Canyon only gives a partial view of Earth’s history, we can see that there is a fascinating and complex history there.
God gives us a much clearer picture of history in the Bible. Timeframes are not as important as understanding God’s love and plan for us. Currently the Grand Canyon has storms just like we have in our lives, and we can turn to God with our problems and our praise.