Soul View

Mountain series begins today – ten days of soul rest high in the North Carolina mountains has given me pause to breathe deep and exhale the struggles and fears, the worries and the tears. In some small way may you find rest in the quiet I hope to impart…

Days are longer in the mountains. This time of year, its light outside by 5:30 and dark – ever so slowly – takes over around 9:30 – if you’re going by first light to last light. It’s been good for this early riser, and it has tricked me into staying up a bit later.

At the top of a ridge with only distant mountains slightly higher than my vista the sky looks so close. Mountain skies change quickly. Looming dark clouds ready to let down their torrents linger, and then brief sun glistens green leaves followed by inevitable clouds descending to literally touch the ground I’m on.

When I woke in the mornings, I could hardly wait to get my camera and capture the sunrise as it slowly made its way to peek over the mountain top. I learned that a few clouds make for more dramatic pictures. Yet the simplicity of purple, followed by lavender, breaking into orange of a cloudless panorama inspires my wonder of God’s handiwork.

Then were the days when wispy clouds of all shapes and formations traversed by. In the distance one evening I saw a thunderhead cloud – and was surprised a moment later to see the lightning in the cloud illuminating and then fading – on and off again as the storm it surely carried moved northward.

While I realize all I’m trying to describe really must be seen with your own eyes to truly ‘feel’ it, still I hope you can sense the awe of something we have absolutely no control over. So big, vast is more like it, is the scope of God’s handiwork that when faced with the majesty we can’t drink in enough.

There have been trips up to these mountains when it was time to depart, I wanted to cry. I wanted to see more, explore more, be awed by more. But this trip, so different than others in many ways, reminded me that someday, some sweet day, we will have forever to take in the wonder. And with eyes that are perfect, minds that can continue to learn more and more, and hearts that don’t question or long for more but rest in the fact that eternity always promises more.

Today, whatever elevation you are viewing your surroundings from, may the Holy Spirit open the eyes of your heart to be awed by the Creator and the vistas He wants to show you. May your soul be satisfied with the knowledge that this life isn’t all there is. May you lift longing hands upward and breathe deep knowing this Savior of ours has made the way for us to see Him face to face. And may you rest for just a few moments savoring the goodness of what is and what is to come.