AWE INSPIRING
I’ll never forget when I visited Iguazu Falls. The immense falls are on the border between Brazil and Argentina offering some of the most amazing waterfalls you can see anywhere. The whole area boasts 275 distinct waterfalls and is one of the biggest waterfalls in the world.
The combined flow of these individual falls is the largest of any waterfall on earth. The Falls are stunning. In comparison to Niagara Falls, Iguazu is 1.7 miles wide — Niagara is only .7 miles wide — and they are about 100 feet taller than Niagara. In the rainy season, there can be 450,000 cubic feet of water cascading over the falls per second.
Devil’s Throat is the largest of the falls, it drops more than 262 feet, contains 14 falls and is shaped like a horseshoe. It is where the deepest and most dramatic of the falls roar, creating countless rainbows. Iguazu Falls are widely considered the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. Visitors are often overwhelmed by their sheer magnificence. At one point along the edge of the falls, you can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls.
To get the best view we walked through a rain forest and then got on a speedboat. The closer we got to Devil’s Throat the louder the sound and the greater the mist. When we stopped the boat and spent time taking in the scene the only word that came to mind was awesome. It was simply awe inspiring to experience such a sight.
Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast or beyond human scale. Awe causes us to be in the moment. It can happen in nature like it did for me or in everyday life. Touching a newborn baby, the generosity of a friend, the kindness of a stranger can all create awe for us.
Sometimes to experience awe we need to change the scenery. We don’t experience it when what we see is always the same. We must try things we don’t normally do, watch something different, listen to something different, go somewhere different.
God does awe inspiring things in many ways. In the early days of the Church the people were experiencing deep community and miracles were happening. In Acts 2:43 it says, “A deep sense of awe came over them all.”
We should have the expectation that God may intervene in our lives at any time or moment. We need to make room in our lives for God to work. When we do God does amazing things and we will experience awe.