It was about 6:00 a.m. A hint of early morning red in the distance promising a rising sun. Huge mountains on both sides of the boat. Snow caps off to the left. It was chilly, kind of misty, and unbelievably beautiful. Our cruise ship was turning into Doubtful Bay in Milford Sound, the fjords of south eastern New Zealand. It was untouched, unspoiled, primeval. No human being had ever walked over those mountains. The dark green was too thick to get through. It was rocks, waterfalls, glaciers, pure creation and quiet.
A song started going through my head... "Morning has broken, like the first morning..." The beauty was unreal and sacred. For an hour or more we sailed up the fjord in water that was nearly a mile deep, watching trees, birds, waterfalls, rocks, and a rising sun giving it all breathtaking definition and color.
"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep. Then God said, "let there be light". And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
A beauty we could only begin to see and touch... a yet a Presence we could not escape. |