Juxtaposition captures the eye. So it was for us on January 3rd, 2011, the morning we awoke in our new rental home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Desert snowfalls are hardly unheard of, but it was jarring nonetheless to see snow on the palm branches in our backyard in Summerlin, a bit up the mountain slopes on the city’s western edge.
Snow in Las Vegas, is not unheard of. In fact, Las Vegas (“Meadows” in Spanish) exists as a city because of the snows and rains that drop on the mountains surrounding the valley. It is a bowl ringed by heights that tend to capture the little precipitation that manages to fall in the Mojave desert. For eons, this moisture found its way underground down to the valley floor and emerged in springs. These little oases formed the basis for a settlement that grew to a city. Near downtown Las Vegas is the wonderful Desert Springs Museum, which explains in masterful detail the natural and human factors that led to a habitation in the middle of the valley (steam trains being a big part of that). The springs that once bubbled water to the surface in the middle of the desert are mostly dried up now due to the needs of the city, but at one time, they perfectly illustrated the paradox of life in a dead place.
Simple material-world contrasts of snow on desert palms and springs from the desert floor point to greater philosophical and theological paradoxes we face. Sorrow and joy–how do we really understand moments of joy without having tasted sorrow? Light and darkness–how does light make sense without its opposite? Justice and mercy–does mercy really exist if there is no justice or standard to which we must be held accountable?
Think of juxtapositions in our lives, these contrasts we see almost daily if we pay attention, as court evidence for the truth of seemingly contradictory propositions–paradox. Theologians and philosophers (I am neither) have spilled oceans of ink, and now countless gigabytes pondering such questions, mysteries we cannot solve this side of heaven. Nevertheless, I’m grateful for brief reminders of paradox.
