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Sarah Thebarge

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Wide and Long and High and Deep

Wide and Long and High and Deep

Last updated on: April 27, 2018 at 5:17 pm by Sarah Thebarge

Wide and Long and High and Deep 2018-04-27T17:17:33+00:00 Sarah Thebarge

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This week I had the opportunity to stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon and stare into the abyss that’s 1 mile deep, 18 miles wide (at its widest point), and 277 miles long. It’s the most vastness I’ve ever experienced in my life. Ridges and rocks and crevices span as far as you can see in all directions.

I hiked along the rim with my dad and after 3 hours of brisk walking, we’d only managed to to walk a tiny fraction of the canyon’s circumference.

At sunset we stood on the stone patio behind Bright Angel Lodge and watched as the warm, slanted light made the Canyon glow purple and orange and gold. It was still. It was sacred. I breathed in the beauty, and was vaguely jealous of the birds that soared above us all, letting the wind carry them to views of the Canyon that were impossible for us to see.

As I stood there in the glowing, fading light, I remembered the words, Wide and long and high and deep.

They’re words that perfectly describe the expansive Grand Canyon.

But Paul uses them to describe the expanse of Divine Love.

Wide and long and high and deep.

When we got back to our hotel, I was curious to learn just how vast the Grand Canyon is.

I learned that if you fill it with the water of all the rivers in the world, it would only be half full.

You could fill the Grand Canyon with all the people who exist on our planet — and have room to spare.

It would take up to 2 quadrillion gallons of water to fill it (that’s a 2 with 15 zero’s after it!)

My mind is boggled by that vastness. I can’t comprehend it. And I struggled to believe it. The Grand Canyon can’t possibly be that big — can it?

I searched more sources and the more I read, the more I realized it was true! The Grand Canyon really is that vast. It really is that wide and that long and that high and that deep.

My incredulity isn’t just for this Wonder of the World. I also struggle to comprehend that the love of God could possibly be so high and wide and long and deep. It’s unbelievable that Love encompasses the 7.6 billion people on the planet — with room to spare. It’s unreal that there’s more of God’s love than there is water in all the rivers in the entire world.

That can’t possibly be true — can it?

But the more I read the sacred stories, the more I study the life of Jesus, the more I listen to saints who are swimming in the deep end of mercy, the more it dawns on me, and the more it sinks into me, that God’s love really is that vast. It really is that wide and that long and that high and that deep.

As I travel back to San Francisco today, I’m hoping to take the vastness with me. I’m hoping to have daily reminders of how expansive Divine Love really is. I’m hoping to have eyes to see that Love holds every single person on our planet — with room to spare.

I’m hoping that each of us would, as Paul prayed, know the Love that surpasses knowledge, and be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God: the full width and length and height and depth of the Love that holds us all.

wide and long and high and deep

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