Catholic Photo Challenge: Seeing God in the Works of Creation

My friend, Steve Nelson, had been participating in the 'Weekly Photo Challenge' over at dailypost.wordpress.com. On Catholic Weekend, Steve had talked about creating a similar photo challenge based on Catholic themes, and the Catholic Photo Challenge was born.

It's pretty simple: on the 1st and 15th of each month, a new theme that is based on some aspect of the Catholic faith will be posted. You choose a picture that you've taken (could be recent or one from the past) that you think fits the theme, and you explain why. When you share it on social media, use the hashtag #catholicphoto.

So with that out of the way: the first challenge (15 May – 31 May) is on the theme 'Seeing God in the Works of Creation'.

Here is my entry.

Waiting for the sun to rise at Haleakalā ('House of the Sun'), Maui.

On a cold, late September morning, my family woke up super-early to go see a sunrise at Haleakalā in Maui. It was an amazing experience. If you go, make sure you dress warmly because the low temperatures will dip to around 40 °F (5 °C). At a little under 10,000 feet (3,048 metres) above sea level, we were above the clouds, and I took a heap of pictures using the ProHDR app on my old iPhone 3GS.

This picture was taken 10 minutes before the official sunrise. I was amazed at all the colours that my simple cell phone camera captured. Below the orange line are the clouds. From where I was standing, it almost looked like an ocean, albeit a billowy, pillowy one. (Part of the reason why I took so many pictures was because I was trying, but failing, to capture those amazing clouds.) Admittedly, I was very disappointed that I wasn't capturing the clouds to my liking; however, when I looked at the blues and purples and grays in the picture, as well as the variation in terrain as we were looking into the crater of the volcano, I couldn't help but think of how majestic this was and that God had a hand in creating all this beauty around us.

Ten minutes later, the sun rose, and I remember hearing something like a horn blowing. I was a little far from this, but someone was also reciting some sort of a poem that goes like this:

E ala e Ka la i kahikina
I ka moana
Ka moana hohonu
Pi’i ka lewa
Ka lewa nu’u
I kahikina
Aia ka la.
E ala e!

Awaken/Arise
The sun in the east
From the ocean
The ocean deep
Climbing (to) the heaven
The heaven highest
In the east
There is the sun
Awaken!

We stayed a little longer, and then we eventually made our way down the mountain and waving at the bicyclists as we passed by.

(Note: Yes, I waited until the very last minute to post this. I promise that I won't wait so long for the next one, which should be posted tomorrow, 1 June.)