Mountains: Communicating God

I just returned after spending nine days with my family vacationing in Estes Park, Colorado. Time away from the office and the day-to-day affairs of the ministry was important. In the Bible God ordained certain times when the children of Israel were to holiday, if you will, from the ordinary events of life. Some of those designated times lasted for only 24 hours - the Sabbath is an example; while others occupied several days - the Passover, in the Spring, and the Feast of Tabernacles, in the Fall, both lasted for 8 days. The God who made us knew that it was important for us to have a change of pace, to escape - even momentarily - from the pressures of our normal work-a-day world.

The Colorado Rockies certainly point to the awesome nature of our Creator-God. Their towering peaks, decorated with white snowfields and rock formations that glisten in the sunlight, truly point a person upward to the heavens. I was moved by their majestic greatness. Yet, it was the little things that stirred my heart while hiking the pathways up those majestic slopes. There was the miracle of life arising from the rocks themselves as tiny pine trees appeared in many of the crevices. I noticed a myriad of wild flowers representing almost every hue in the rainbow gracing the slopes along the hiking paths. Some stood tall almost shouting to a passer-by, "Look at me," while others seemed to hide their beauty in the shade of the towering pines and aspens. And a few were so small that one could easily have by-passed their beauty.

Both large and small creatures roamed the mountain slopes. Elk, many with velvet-covered antlers, were abundant grazing among the grasses and munching on the young shoots of the pines, seemingly oblivious to the snapping of the cameras of the curious hikers. Mountain sheep marched around as if proclaiming their status as "kings of the hills." And then there were the small squirrels and chipmunks. What fun it was to watch them. At one location, I sat almost mesmerized by a chipmunk who was intrigued with my backpack that I had lying on the ground. I think he was interested in a handout - but I heeded the warnings not to feed the animals. I told him that it was for his own good - but I don't think he truly understood as he kept returning.

A thought kept stirring in my heart those days. If the mountains are so beautiful today in a world under the curse, what will the mountains in the new earth be like? What will our relationships be like with the creatures who will inhabit those mountain slopes? Will those streams that flow from those snowfields be more crystalline than those today? Will the colors of the flowers be more exciting? I don't have answers for those questions. But, if a visit to the Colorado Rockies can elicit a "Wow!" from our lips today, I feel confident that a visit to the Rockies of the New Earth will elicit an even greater "Wow!" Oh what we have to look forward to!