Mountain Top Experience

Seems I’m on a roll, rather a climb. A couple of weeks ago I shared my “cross” mountain top experience in Mexico that led to a great header for my website. Now, two days in a row, I’m still climbing and talking about mountains.

My granddaughter and I started at the bottom of the steep Cascade mountain from where we had ridden down in a truck to a beautiful creek for family photos and water fun. We could have opted for the ride back up the mountain in the truck, but, it was Alexia's idea for us to take the climb. Me, being the “all in” Nana for as long as I can, boarded her idea instead of the truck! It was steep in many places, and I lost my footing a couple of times, still, we kept anchoring our feet in as we made our way upward. We finally reached the top unscathed. It was by no means a major feat, but we still knew the thrill of accomplishing our goal to arrive at the top and see the panoramic view.

My 12-year-old grandson doesn't play competitive sports. He's more of a free-spirit, loves his many animals and hanging out with them AND climbing – anything! I’ll be honest, when I see him climbing some tall trees or the steep, rocky hills from their creek, I hold my breath, but he always conquers. He often goes to the rock-climbing gym and can spend hours there. He beats mature climbers to the top. He sets his climbing goal, scales the wall, and enjoys the reward of self-accomplishment.

There are so many bonuses and benefits at the top of a mountain. My husband and I were downhill snow skiers with our two children. A ski trip was a part of most of our winters. Oh, how I loved the ski lodges at the base of the mountain where we could warm up and enjoy hot drinks and a meal. But the real bonus was conquering the mountain – going up on the ski lifts and making it down without injury. His were the black diamond slopes with our kids and mine was z-ing down the green, easy-peasy slopes. I was quite proud of myself and it didn’t matter how long it took me – my goal was to arrive in one piece.

Mountains. Hills. Rock-Climbing Walls. We can go around them, dig a tunnel through them, fly over them, ride a ski lift up them, blow them up, turn around and go back the way we came, just sit and cry about them, OR, as hard as it may be, we can climb them, and feel the thrill of accomplishment when we reach the top and back at the bottom. My takeaway from all climbs is setting a goal, having a strong belief in who we are and what we are capable of, and we start climbing with gusto. And when we make it to the top, we have new confidence in just about everything else that’s going on in our lives.

There must be mountains to appreciate the valleys. Perhaps, God, in all His wisdom, is wanting us to scale those mountains and hike up those mountains for a “mountain-top experience” where we are refreshed, restored, nourished, and where we receive divine revelation. He is wanting to equip us to take on any mountain that may be standing in our way. Mountains are not some magic place where we will automatically experience God. It’s not about the place it’s about the heart. Let's create our own spiritual mountain today right where we are and have a mountain top experience!

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains; where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2

Our Creator's Epic Creation -- the Skies AND You and Me

Sunday morning, on the way to church, I was mesmerized with the Eastern skies. I stopped several times to take photos of the panoramic view of God’s handiwork. Oh my, He was certainly showing off. I told Him so! It was as though He wanted us to see Who could a thousand times over one-up the ability of any brilliant artist on the “human” scale. Michelangelo was sometimes called “the divine one” because his works were so grand and full of strong emotion. I agree that Michelangelo’s works were breathtaking. I have seen many of them, firsthand, but there is only one “DIVINE ONE” and that is our Divine Creator Who set the bar for creativity, artistry, musicality, spirituality, physically and in every other way.

All of creation is God’s epic painting, and the really good news is WE are in the painting. Unlike a landscape on canvas, God’s painting is three dimensional and living and breathing and when He looked at us (humankind) in the beginning, He declared “It is good!” We can gaze up into the sky that God painted with the brush of His Word, "Let there be...." and understand that the God who painted this landscape is the glorious Creator of us. We realize He had a divine purpose for us, just as all of the rest of His creation. We look at this world and see God’s brushstrokes everywhere. It amazes me that anyone could deny that God created all of this.

Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Notice that scripture is in present tense. The heavens ARE declaring and the sky IS proclaiming God’s handiwork. All of nature itself shows the greatness of God. It’s a continual display. And all of that greatness is inanimate. If the inanimate declares His glory and proclaims His handiwork, how much more should we be declaring and proclaiming His awesomeness in living our lives out loud, fulfilling the purposes He had for us? We should be constantly showing off the amazing Creator He is and that He really exists by the way we live as His reflection on this earth!

The sky is preaching the glory of God to us every day. I really sensed that God was showing off on Sunday to get our attention. I suspect that I wasn’t the only one awed by His display of His greatness. I felt honored that He got my attention – not once, but several times as I made my way to church. After church, I looked at the Eastern sky and by then, the painting was blue and white instead of the yellows and reds and oranges and blues that I witnessed earlier. Specifically, the Psalmist wants us to look up and see all the wondrous things God has created.

Again, Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." Creation shouts the glory of God. Whenever we look up our eyes partake of this epic portrait and epic perpetual sermon to the Glory of God.

How do we know God? We look up. We open our eyes and take in His creation and understand that this magnificent work of art has a Divine Artist. Then we take a deep breath of the air of His creation, and breathe out our praise to THE ONE who put it all on display for us, the ones He created and who are on display for the world to see Him in us and see what He saw “And God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)