The Mountain View

I’m across the river at Skamania Lodge, staring at the hills and waters in the distance. I’m enjoying a day with my sweetheart unhindered by our children, and it seems whenever there is time to rest we end up instead of resting, facing sadness that we have set aside in our every day lives, things that we don’t have time to mourn when we are drowning in babies and chores;  relationships that never seem to fully mend, separation, loss, never being fully aligned with people we love. It feels incorrect that we each hold our own view, it causes upset and misunderstanding . If we were all clairvoyant wouldn’t we avoid so much pain? But we are not, we are all frontiersmen in our own lives. We are the first to step out onto our own metaphorical western wilderness and forge through the unknown.  We are unique, each of us, there never was and never will be again a person who sees your world, your struggles with your own personal flaws and attributes affecting your every thought. The choices you make and, that have been made for you, lead you down a path that is new and specific to you. Others may be walking closely along your path but no matter how close, the mountains in the distance are at a slightly different angle to them compared to where you stride, the trees a different height. And not only do we deal with difference in perspective but sin is now a barrier, a lens that we see truth through, and that lens does well to alter our view, on love, on God. Our view gathers dust and is cracked, for some their image may appear doubled and multi-faceted, stretched and warped and at times our lens is covered in soot from flame of destruction, divorce, death, loss, abuse.  We need a view with no lens. We need the mountains themselves to tell us what they look like, where they rise and fall, where we might find water and shelter on our journey, for when you are blind you walk by faith or stand perfectly still, trapped by fear. If we look to others to share their view we only layer on their lens over our own, seeing bits and pieces of the true image but not much more. We need an image unveiled, unhindered but the lens will not be lifted from our eyes in this life, our only hope is a faith in a divide description, His perspective imparted. For now we are the child sitting in a worn and unwashed atrium straining to see the night sky.  We gain little improvement to our view by asking the fellow atrium dweller what they see, we must call out to the gardener and ask what is in His gaze. And this is a poor metaphor for now we trust not in just the perspective of another human with a better view but in the words of the one who not only sees perfectly but made all with His own hands. We inquire of Him about a thing that he has held in his palm, molded, and sculpted every curve and gap, every stubble and  spire. His word is a letter describing the true view, the unaltered image of love, from the one with the strongest most possible apprehension on the subject. The gardener calls us to leave the atrium, to give up the safe walls, but also the grimy windows and stale air. We only gain by sacrifice. Sacrifice of the oh so precious, of our children, our wives and husbands, our pride, our safety, their safety, and the ever strongly clutched to, comfort zone. What is so commonly called “faith” can be de-Christianized by re-naming it trust. Trust that what He says is really true. He says these things we sacrifice are small and insignificant compared to what is to be gained by losing them.

2 Cor 4:17 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”

  So, white knuckles grip tight in fear, these loves, these loved ones, until ……… we choose to trust His view, and believe that He is God. Then release, the blood returns in deluge through the flesh, reviving what was asphyxiating and we leave the atrium walls to join the Creator in the peace that truth produces. Our loss becomes prodigious gain.

 ….Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall SEE God….