The Grandest Sight I Ever Beheld
Journal 2005 06 13
The Grandest Sight I Ever Beheld
Sunrise finds the swift men of the advance team breaking camp after their breakfast of venison and fish. They quickly reach the plains above the river. Lewis regales at the garden-like beauty of this broad plain. A rose in bloom, green grass and the expanse of the fifty-mile wide plain is teeming with life. Birds, fish, bears, elk, deer and “infinitely more buffaloe than I had ever before witnessed at a view.” Two hundred and fifty foot sheer cliffs surround this idyllic valley and the men drink in its sensory delights.
Staying close enough to the river to hear any large waterfall Lewis sends Private Shields out to his right and Privates Drouillard and Gibson to his left with orders to “kill some meat” and join him at the river for dinner.
At noon, about two miles from directing the men to hunt Lewis writes that “my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water.” He advances a little further and sees water spraying above the plain like a wispy column of smoke. Lewis describes the roar as “too tremendous to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri.” This description would become the name of the Great Falls of the Missouri. And because the Missouri River is now in what we know as Montana, Great Falls, Montana takes its name from the nearby landmark.
Only two days from camp and the Captains are rewarded in their decision to take the left fork. What delight must have filled the heart of Meriwether Lewis! Although I believe he is so smitten with the grandeur of this sight that any self-satisfaction is lost in the power and natural wonder that fills his immediate surroundings. Lewis longs to describe the falls accurately and wishes for a crimee obscura, a type of box camera that allowed tracing rather than a photograph to be recorded. Lewis drops into the dangerous canyon and takes a position on some rocks directly across from the falls and describes the sight “as the grandest sight I ever beheld.”
Ever the scientist, Lewis carefully describes the heights, lengths and widths of the falls. He also attempts to describe the geography and flow of the river over the rocks. Skeletons of animals who died over the falls are gathered on rocks downriver. A constant, vivid rainbow arches through the scene adding to the beauty and grandeur Lewis works so hard to record on paper. He mentions an attempt to draw the scene, but no drawing is ever found.
In the midst of the joy of his discovery Lewis realizes that no easy portage exists around the falls and the men will carry everything overland around the falls. He anticipates the portage to take several days at most. He will explore further upstream in the morning as messengers will be sent downstream to inform the main party of their find.
In the joy of our discovery we many times see the seed of work required to realize the prize. No treasure worth finding is without a price. Gold ore is mined then fired in a furnace. Silver is mined and smelted. Diamonds are carefully cut to bring out their true uniqueness. Eternal life required the “work of the Cross” to obtain. It is free to us, unmatched in price. What are we working on? Does it have value? Then it will require great work. Is our work too easy? Then we must look at the eternal value of it. Precious rewards are predicated by discovery that draws miraculous human effort from deep within us to extract the most value from our raw being.
Allow the “Great Commissioner” to send you on an expedition to “the grandest sight you’ve ever beheld” knowing that the joy of discovery will extract the greatest effort from someplace deep inside you for the discovery to be made known and take on great value.
This three-year walk is called the “Cross of Discovery” for this very purpose. That we may find in this parallel adventure “the grandest sight you’ve ever beheld” and then allow that discovery to extract from you life you didn’t know you were capable of giving. God-given, God-breathed, God-directed living that can only be fulfilled by the discovery of the beauty of a cascade of blood spilling over a wooden cross that leads to an eternal city where the river of life will dwarf the Great Falls of the Missouri. Then we can truly find joy in the journey.
The Grandest Sight I Ever Beheld
Sunrise finds the swift men of the advance team breaking camp after their breakfast of venison and fish. They quickly reach the plains above the river. Lewis regales at the garden-like beauty of this broad plain. A rose in bloom, green grass and the expanse of the fifty-mile wide plain is teeming with life. Birds, fish, bears, elk, deer and “infinitely more buffaloe than I had ever before witnessed at a view.” Two hundred and fifty foot sheer cliffs surround this idyllic valley and the men drink in its sensory delights.
Staying close enough to the river to hear any large waterfall Lewis sends Private Shields out to his right and Privates Drouillard and Gibson to his left with orders to “kill some meat” and join him at the river for dinner.
At noon, about two miles from directing the men to hunt Lewis writes that “my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water.” He advances a little further and sees water spraying above the plain like a wispy column of smoke. Lewis describes the roar as “too tremendous to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri.” This description would become the name of the Great Falls of the Missouri. And because the Missouri River is now in what we know as Montana, Great Falls, Montana takes its name from the nearby landmark.
Only two days from camp and the Captains are rewarded in their decision to take the left fork. What delight must have filled the heart of Meriwether Lewis! Although I believe he is so smitten with the grandeur of this sight that any self-satisfaction is lost in the power and natural wonder that fills his immediate surroundings. Lewis longs to describe the falls accurately and wishes for a crimee obscura, a type of box camera that allowed tracing rather than a photograph to be recorded. Lewis drops into the dangerous canyon and takes a position on some rocks directly across from the falls and describes the sight “as the grandest sight I ever beheld.”
Ever the scientist, Lewis carefully describes the heights, lengths and widths of the falls. He also attempts to describe the geography and flow of the river over the rocks. Skeletons of animals who died over the falls are gathered on rocks downriver. A constant, vivid rainbow arches through the scene adding to the beauty and grandeur Lewis works so hard to record on paper. He mentions an attempt to draw the scene, but no drawing is ever found.
In the midst of the joy of his discovery Lewis realizes that no easy portage exists around the falls and the men will carry everything overland around the falls. He anticipates the portage to take several days at most. He will explore further upstream in the morning as messengers will be sent downstream to inform the main party of their find.
In the joy of our discovery we many times see the seed of work required to realize the prize. No treasure worth finding is without a price. Gold ore is mined then fired in a furnace. Silver is mined and smelted. Diamonds are carefully cut to bring out their true uniqueness. Eternal life required the “work of the Cross” to obtain. It is free to us, unmatched in price. What are we working on? Does it have value? Then it will require great work. Is our work too easy? Then we must look at the eternal value of it. Precious rewards are predicated by discovery that draws miraculous human effort from deep within us to extract the most value from our raw being.
Allow the “Great Commissioner” to send you on an expedition to “the grandest sight you’ve ever beheld” knowing that the joy of discovery will extract the greatest effort from someplace deep inside you for the discovery to be made known and take on great value.
This three-year walk is called the “Cross of Discovery” for this very purpose. That we may find in this parallel adventure “the grandest sight you’ve ever beheld” and then allow that discovery to extract from you life you didn’t know you were capable of giving. God-given, God-breathed, God-directed living that can only be fulfilled by the discovery of the beauty of a cascade of blood spilling over a wooden cross that leads to an eternal city where the river of life will dwarf the Great Falls of the Missouri. Then we can truly find joy in the journey.
posted by @2007 Dick Cinkovich | 12:53 PM
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