God used a text message from someone back home (which I normally don’t get because I have no reception) to wake me up at 4:45am. I decided He was inviting me to get up and watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon. So I quickly grabbed my Bible, camera, and some blankets and drove out to Mather Point. I got there just moments before the sun began to peek over the mountains. To say it was majestic is an understatement!
Soon after the sunrise all the people that had come out to see it left and I was alone with God. I opened my Bible and I was in Psalm 96 which starts with: “Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.“ I ended my reading with Psalm 100:
“Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.“
I can’t even begin to tell you how powerful it was to be reading those Words while sitting out there. I’m so thankful I didn’t miss the opportunity to experience that (I was tempted to just go back to sleep, plus I knew it was going to be cold). It’s so incredible to have a relationship with the creator of the universe! Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice which makes that possible.
Afterwards I went back to the trailer and took a nap. Then, we went into town to get something to eat and we watched an iMax movie about the Grand Canyon (even that didn’t do it justice)! By that time it was about 3pm, so we decided that was a good time to head out on a hike because the sun was starting to go down so it wasn’t as hot.
We drove out to the South Kaibab trailhead and honestly we had no idea what to expect. We heard the hike to Ohh-Ahh Point was only 0.9 miles, but it would take about two hours because of how steep it was, and they weren’t kidding! It was scary steep! I hugged the inside wall the whole way, but the views were incredible! It was so worth it. On the way back Jimbo decided to hike off trail down into the canyon. He was gone a long time and I was trying not to freak out (which was hard), But, thankfully he eventually emerged from the “depths” of the canyon and I was SO relieved!
After the hike we were exhausted and hungry, so we grabbed a quick dinner and then I showered and went to bed. It was about 11pm and Jimbo was in the shower when I heard someone honking their car horn outside. When Dawn looked out the window she saw what looked like our truck on fire! Jimbo quickly jumped out of the shower , grabbing the fire extinguisher on his way out the door (thankfully he was able to get dressed first). When he got out there several of our neighbors were already trying to put out the fire with water jugs. Turned out it was our generator. We have no idea what caused it to catch fire. But, we’re so thankful it wasn’t any worse... our truck could have blown up or we could have set the whole forest on fire. The crazy thing is no one knows who honked the car horn that alerted everyone to the fire! (But, I know it was God.)