Hidden Treasure

Who could guess that hidden within the dry, barren terrain of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, there are slot canyons of incredible beauty!  One such canyon is known as Antelope Canyon, near the town of Page. 

The Navajo name for Antelope Canyon is 'Tse bighanilini,' which means "the place where water runs through the rock." The canyon was formed by erosion of sandstone, mostly due to flash flooding.

Antelope Canyon bears the mark of rushing waters and the rock presents its own distinct liquid flow, similar to blown glass.

You can't visit the canyon at will. It is owned by the Navajo people, and you must sign up for a tour with a Navajo guide who drives you down a red, rocky trail to the mouth of the canyon. From the outside it looks much like any other rock formation except that there is an opening like a narrow, curved slit in the cliff. Entering that slit is where the magic begins!

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Beams of sunlight stream down from jagged openings in the ceiling, illuminating curving spirals of rock. The rock itself looks like ribbon candy with stripes of gold, burnt sienna, dusky rose and deep plum. Standing in that cayon, I wanted to stop time just to take it all in.

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There's something about Antelope Canyon, it's hidden treasure, that haunts me. I left the canyon, but it didn't leave me. I'm struck by the beauty that is worked by God in secret. How long did that slot canyon lay "hidden in a field" before it was discovered?

I appreciate a God of mysteries and of hidden treasures. I don't want a God who is easily defined and managed. I want One who both hides and reveals Himself at His own choosing. The kind who hides from the all-knowing and self important and reveals Himself to babes. I look to the Holy writings to voice something that I am only grasping at intuitively. 

"... the mystery of God... in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.."

"... and in the hidden part, you shall make me to know wisdom.."

"For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God..."

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels..."

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels... like Antelope Canyon hidden in barren, rocky desert.