The mouth of the Columbia River is treacherous and considered the most dangerous water to navigate in the world. The deep strong river water currents collide with the Pacific Ocean waves making navigating nearly impossible. Most ship wreckages occur from running aground because of the large sediment deposits made by the Columbia.
The clear threat to the shipping lanes forced lighthouses to be built on the Oregon and Washington sides of the Columbia River. However, one more lighthouse was needed to ensure the safety of the ships, and the only location adequately positioned was a bolder named Tillamook Rock, shaped like a sea monster and located a mile off the Tillamook, Oregon coastline.
The year was 1879. Construction on the site began with surveying, building a temporary housing for the workers, dynamiting the rock to provide a level foundation to erect a permanent lighthouse structure. Between the running current and cold winds, danger lurked at every step. The Oregon coastal waters near Tillamook hover at fifty degrees year-round (ten degrees colder for winter months and warmer for summer months) making its waters miserably cold at its best. Fog rolling in severely limits vision. Storms made securing the rock nearly impossible as the crashing waves easily topped the six stories that comprised the rock.
For some 500 days crews diligently worked on converting the mammoth rock into a home base for the Tillamook Lighthouse. Even though modern advances of technology (by our standards) eluded the workers and the building was conducted by “primitive” methods, death claimed no workers; local Oregonians refused to help in construction because they feared the dangers. As for the weather conditions, combined with the isolation from civilization for those working at the facility, the lighthouse earned the nickname, “Terrible Tilly.”
Terrible. Only in the sense of something awesome and breathtaking. I think of those words used to describe the sea monster monument off the coast of Oregon.
Terrible. Only in the sense of something awesome and breathtaking. I think of qualities easily associated with God.
When we come into the presence of God we stand before someone so awesome it is beyond measure. He is “the Lord Most High who is the King over the entire earth” (Ps. 47:2). As our understanding of the world and universe continues to expand, so does our understanding of a God who called all of this into existence. Instead of seeing God as smaller – too small to create – we find a God who is far greater and more powerful than we can ever imagine.
When we come into the presence of God we stand before someone who takes our breath away. The Psalmist describes the heavens as declaring his glory (Ps. 19:1). Words cannot express our thoughts or imaginations when we look into the sky and watch the rising sun’s colors . . . or mesmerized by the fall colors on the trees . . . or star struck by the constellations . . . or fixated on the mountain as they touches the sky . . . or the beauty of a river cutting through the gorge . . . or studying a robin building a nest in the apple tree of your front yard. When we experience those moments, we’re getting a reflection of the glory God bestows, and even that is breathtaking.
When we come into the presence of God we stand before someone terrible, not in the since of evil but in the sense of his holiness. His holiness is a raging fire which consumes all evil and sinfulness. Awesome, as a word to describe God, can be interchanged with “terrible” (e.g. Psalm 47:2 in the KJV uses “terrible” where the NIV uses “awesome). Thus, God is to be feared, respected and revered. Flippant following will only end in a terrible crisis.
1957 saw the Tillamook Lighthouse decommissioned as the expense to maintain her far exceeded the appropriate and reasonable funds. But with her always came qualities we find in God: something awesome, something breathtaking and something terrible. And like God, she’ll be there forever.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e. only God is glorified!)