Once Upon a Time, In Wadi Rum

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 

Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 

There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 

Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

    

    Recently my small group was studying Psalm 19. The question was asked, "what is one of the most beautiful, breathtaking views of nature you have ever seen?" I have seen many beauteous sights in this world, but the language of Psalm 19:1-4 (quoted above) drew my memory to one of the most stunning encounters I have ever had with the created world. 

    60 km east of Aqaba lies Jordan’s largest wadi (a low, dry valley). The red sand and desolate bedrock formations of Wadi Rum has captured human imagination for centuries. Wadi Rum has staged certain scenes from (among others) Lawrence of Arabia, Rogue One, the Rise of Skywalker, and Disney’s live action Aladdin. Stretching nearly 280 square miles, one may well imagine they are part of Aladdin’s adventures, or venturing on an alien planet.

Lawrence of Arabia, who did indeed walk the sands of Wadi Rum, described it thus:

"The hills on the right grew taller and sharper, a fair counterpart of the other side which straightened itself to one massive rampart of redness. They drew together until only two miles divided them: and then, towering gradually till their parallel parapets must have been a thousand feet above us, ran forward in an avenue for miles. The crags were capped in nests of domes, less hotly red than then body of the hill; rather grey and shallow. They gave the finishing semblance of Byzantine architecture to this irresistible place: this processional way greater than imagination."

Greater than imagination. My memory brings me back to this wadi, a journey of only five years into the past. Standing on the height of a sandstone. bluff, leaning full into the wind which held me there, precipitous and free. It was a wild pace. Some have said the desert is a place for demons - where they go when wandering the earth with no soul to inhabit and torment. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps this is where demons easily tempt, but it is also where the Holy Spirit may speak clearly. God too, is in the wilderness.

 

        Night falls on the desert. Well-satisfied with rice and lamb, we grab our sleeping bags and strike off into the darkness. Coming upon a satisfactory dune, we lay out our beds in a circle, heads together. We watch the stars and tell stories. I wish I remembered Susannah's story, it was well told! Dan doesn't't believe me that Ursa Major, the bear, has a long tail - even when I explain how Zeus stretched it by flinging her by the tail into the heavens away from Hara's jealous vindication. Richard has downloaded Lawrence of Arabia, but we only make it part way though before slumber overtakes us.

    Around 3am I awake. Turning to the sky I see a heavens too beautiful to describe. A sky full, literally full of stars. The Milky Way was stretching from one horizon to the other, not a hazy cloud but a brilliant, shining cluster of clear stars, white and deep blue and purple. The desert was washed in clear blue light, not only moonlight, but starlight. I cannot begin to describe the beauty, the majesty - the glory.

The photo below is not mine, but it gives an idea of what I saw. 

    When faced with the heavenly bodies, many have said it creates a sense of smallness, of insignificance, perhaps of lostness. I did not feel insignificant, but I felt incredibly humbled. To look out into space, to see trillions of stars and galaxies before me, how can we not be humbled in the face of such a great expanse, and we, one tiny creature on a single planet? If I did not belong to the God who made all of it, I likely would have felt lost. But I was humbled that the God of all solar systems, who created galaxies beyond number, knows my name. Humbled that he made me in his own image, and then came to this planet in the likeness of men to redeem and restore his image in me. That he should be my good shepherd and search for me in the clefts of earth's rocks, one sheep in a universe of creation.

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. 

If I say, "surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 

For you formed my inward parts; you knotted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Psalm 139:7-14