Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Isaiah wrote, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10, NKJV

We had been there before, my wife and I, but our children had never seen the mountains. All the way across the plains and hills of Missouri and Kansas each new rise in the landscape elicited the query, “Is that a mountain?” “No,” we would say, “Not yet. When you have to stick your heads out the car windows to see the top, that’s a mountain.”
Finally, as we navigated the foothills of eastern Colorado, we could point ahead to the west and say, “Those are the mountains.” Big! Impressive, massive, beyond belief for a flatlander. Seen from the distance they appear as a great unbroken mass rising to the clouds, and capped with a topping of white, even late in the month of June. The real wonder and awe is not seen, though, until one is enveloped in the midst of a mountain range. Up close and personal, it is the small things, the varied detail, that creates an aura of anticipation for what lies around the next bend.
The road ahead turns out to be more than just up and more up. Cresting a long rise may bring a sudden vista of a valley reaching off into the distance, perhaps cradling a shimmering lake. A closer inspection may reveal that the stream has been blocked by a beaver dam, just like in the picture books, and the lucky observer may even spot one of the industrious builders in their native habitat. Plants, flowers, and wildlife unlike anything seen at lower elevations make each rest stop or pull-off point an invitation for exploration.
Seen up close, even the rocks themselves turn out to be so much more than just one big blob of stone. Layered, tipped, and tumbled, with coloration to challenge any box of crayons, the little details fill many a geology book. What at a distance appears to be solid, everlasting, unbreakable, and impermeable reveals that the forces of time and nature produce cracks, crumbling, and erosion. What rises up eventually comes down, a thought that might give pause to even the most ‘hard-boiled’ of us mortals.
There is a scale in the mountains that dwarfs us. We are reminded of forces beyond our capabilities or comprehension. To have risen a thousand, two thousand feet, only to look up and see sheer clifts and towering heights yet far above is humbling. To round a bend in the road only to see it ever higher, clinging to the side of the mountain in the distance, we realize that we must trust in not only the builders that carved out the road we travel upon, but also share the faith of those who have safely traveled this way before us.
So, too, as we travel the road of life, we see God off in the distance, omnipotent, infinite, unreachable, beyond our limited comprehension. By moving closer to Him, we enter a relationship that is filled with the splender of things otherwise unseen. Things like joy, love, and peace, just our size. Trust The Builder, and join in faith with those who have traveled this way before us.
August 28 (News) 2005