Ever heard of The Mariana Trench?
The Mariana Trench is this area in the North Pacific Ocean where the ocean floor just sort of opens up - almost the underwater inverse of a mountain. The ocean's deepest point is part of the Trench, the 36,201 foot deep "Challenger Deep". Challenger Deep is so deep that you could take the tallest peak in the world, Mount Everest, turn it upside down, and drop it into the trench...and still have 7,000 feet before you would have filled the trench to the surface.
36,000 feet is unfathomably deep to me. It is seven miles under water. It is the equivalent of a jetliner's cruising altitude - only it's underwater. It is really, really (really) deep.
And somehow, incredibly, there is life that far down in the ocean. The Mariana Trench sustains a healthy population of sole, shrimp, and flounder and Challenger Deep itself hosts at least 432 different types of creautures. Under 36,000 feet of the blackest blue, there is life.
Blue is the persistence of life.
Blue is the depth of creation.
life in the ashes. I think of Elijah moaning to God that all is ruined, the people scattered and he alone left fighting the good fight. God challenges him by saying thousands exist Elijah is unaware of.
ReplyDeletehow often, a situation seems so deep, so dark, so insurmountable we succumb to a defeated summation of the situation...surely no life, hope, or goodness can exist here...now...Yet, there is a persistence of life beyond our comprehension.
is there an element of...
ReplyDeletehe is in the darkness as much as in the light - even though we would assume it not so? even though we would think surely he cannot exist in darkness? isn't he there - isn't it as much his as the light?
God is so amazing. Imagine the pressure and weight of all that water, yet life persists and flourishes. In fact, if you try to take one of those creatures up too fast, they die (actually they kinda explode due to the absence of pressure). Sometimes, getting out of a "pressure" filled situation takes time, and you have to adjust to the lack of said pressure. Maybe we shouldn't always pray for the absence of difficulty, rather the strength to survive and flourish in it. So, yes, He is in the darkness as well as the light.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that God would create light and yet not eradicate the darkness (just name the separation of them).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Jonah felt God's presence during those 3 days on a yellow submarine in the Med?