The Record, Thursday, January 9, 2003
Story and photos by GREGORY RUMMO

SOMETIMES WE WITNESS some incredible event of nature, past or present, so beautiful or powerful that to describe it is beyond words. Even a photograph or a painting fails to do it justice. We stand in awe, shrinking from it, not necessarily in fear but in reverence. Perhaps even the word "worship" is appropriate. A quiet voice inside of us whispers that we are taking in with our senses what could have been wrought only by the hand of God. 

Several places on the Earth evoke this response from the depths of my soul. Two of them lie in northern Arizona: Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon. I am drawn there like the swallows to Capistrano or the salmon that return every year to the rivers that birthed them. I cannot explain the reason. Perhaps it is nothing more than wanderlust.

Both the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley were formed by catastrophic forces. Flood waters, carrying millions of tons of sediment, drained off the continent into the oceans hundreds of miles distant. The scars of this great catastrophe are all that remain. Those scars have become two great centurions - gatekeepers of time - like the two great stone Argonaths from "The Lord of the Rings." But they are also sanctuaries in stone. Native Americans have revered these sites for centuries.

The larger buttes and mesas in Monument Valley have names like Totem Pole, Three Sisters, Yei-Bi Chei, and Merrick Butte. Each has spiritual significance in the Navajo culture. The Mittens - two buttes standing 978 and 1,023 feet, respectively - were supposedly left behind by the Holy People, deities or spiritual beings who lived on Mother Earth in the beginning of time.

Many Native American tribes trace their origin to the Grand Canyon. The Havasupai believed it to be the birthplace of the human race. The Hopi believed it was where all living things came through another dimension into our world.

But perhaps the Hualapai have the most interesting tradition about the origin of the Grand Canyon. They believe the earth was once covered by a flood. The Great Hero then stuck the Earth with a huge knife, rocking it back and forth, creating deep gorges so that the water could drain away.

Of course, the Hualapai aren't the only people with such a story. Genesis 7:19 states: "The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered."

The Bible goes on to recount how God - The Great Hero of the Judeo-Christian tradition -caused the flood waters to recede from the Earth.

Whether standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon or the southern end of Monument Valley at Artist's Point looking north into Utah, one imagines hearing the rocks crying out, their voices carried on the wind, echoing the history of the cataclysm that formed them millennia ago.

MOONRISE, MONUMENT VALLEY

A survey taken by Northern Arizona State University found that 64 percent of visitors in recent years "came to red rock country seeking some kind of spiritual experience."

Some believe that there are "vortex meditation sites" scattered throughout the red-rock buttes of Sedona, for example, where prayer, contemplation, meditation, and reflection are enhanced. Not surprisingly, vortex sites are some of the most impacted and visited sites in the national forest in the Sedona area.

In Luke 19:40, Jesus said that the "stones would immediately cry out" in response to man's attempt to silence the spirit of worship in the human heart.

As I stood at the base of those immense, red sandstone buttes in Monument Valley -and, the following day, after hiking down into the Grand Canyon along the Kaibab Trail, stopping for 10 minutes to marvel at the absolute silence -it became clear to me what Jesus meant.

These rocks do indeed cry out in praise to the Great Creator. n

Gregory Rummo belongs to Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Paterson. He is the author of "The View From the Grass Roots," published by American Book Publishing. You may e-mail him at TheRecordReligion@northjersey.com

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