Recently, I was taking an early morning walk. As I walked down Fern approaching the church, I happened to look over to the northeast, and was greeted with a spectacular view of the local mountains. They were very prominent in the distance, with clouds just beginning to move in to cover the mountain tops. As I gazed at this sight, the words of Psalm 121:1-2 came to mind:

I lift up my eyes to the hills;
from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the Lord,|
the maker of heaven and earth.

A few hours later, I was outside again and my attention was once again drawn to the northeast. But this time, there were no mountains to be seen. Cloud cover and mist completely shrouded themountains. Of course, even though I couldn’t see the mountains, I knew they were there.

Personally, I find great comfort in knowing the mountains are there. I particularly like living in an area where we are surrounded on nearly all sides by hills and mountains. For me, they are like great arm reaching out to embrace me, to keep me safe – unlike living on the plains where you are exposed. And even when I cannot see the mountains due to clouds or mist or even smog, I take great comfort in knowing they are still there, and long for the time when I will be able to see them again, in all their glory.

As I reflected on the view from earlier that morning as compared with what I later saw (or didn’t see), I was reminded that our view of God is so often like our view of the mountains. At times, God is quite visible to us, appearing in spectacular ways. And at other times, we do not see God at all. Perhaps he is hidden from view because of the intensity of some dramatic event in our lives. Or, more often than not, he might just be hidden from our view by the clouds and mist and even smog that seems to accompany our daily lives – things like distractions and over-business, or emotions like sorrow, frustration, disappointment, anger. But even when we can’t see God directly, when he is shrouded from our view, we can be assured that behind all that stuff, he is still there. And he is just waiting to reveal himself to us in all his glory.

Like the mountains that surround our valley, God is always there, reaching out to embrace us, to keep us safe, to let us know that we are loved. We just may not notice because of all the stuff we let cloud our vision. But we are assured of his presence through the last verse of Psalm 121:

The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in,
from this time forth for evermore.

Blessings,

Father Michael