I once spent a day at Iguaçu Falls in Argentina. I can safely say that, at this point in my life, it is the most beautiful part of nature that I’ve ever had the privilege of experiencing, and I say “experiencing” because it is just that, an experience. As if God decided that this place was so special that He should give it an extra touch. Its not real, its like an alternate reality. Hundreds of waterfalls pour down all around you, some big, rushing like a mighty army heading off to battle…and some small, trickling down the mountain, the peaceful song of the river. A path lies around the falls, and around each corner there is a new discovery of the beauty and mystery behind it all. There is one point along the path at which you stand on a bridge looking down as several armies of falls join together and plummet into what seems like an endless abyss. Some were frightened to stand too close to the edge for fear that they might fall in…I on the other hand, had a strange urge to take the plunge. The reality that I still held within kept me from jumping, but the desire to free fall, to be, even for a moment, part of the indescribable beauty of it all, overwhelmed me. What would it be like, even for mere seconds, to be completely free? As I stood in awe, the thought struck me…is it possible to be free? Is it possible to cascade, like the falls, into an endless abyss of love? The answer seems too complex for words. Here’s what I decided. The beauty of the falls was too immeasurable for words, but a large part of the beauty was that to fully experience it you had to let go of reality. Life teaches you that its not possible to take in such beauty, but part of experiencing Iguaçu was realizing that it is…and not only was it possible to take in the beauty, but there was new and unexplainable beauty around each corner.
You see I realized that Iguaçu Falls was a lesson on life. The world teaches us to be skeptics…always looking for things to be afraid of, or to judge. The thing is, if we’ll let go of what we’ve always known as reality, and grab on to the reality that God has set before us, I believe that we will finally experience freedom. As we freefall into the endless abyss of His love for us, we will finally feel the acceptance, and hope, and joy, and peace and strength that we so long for. We just have to learn to see things through His eyes…for me, to look at the world like Iguaçu.
