Still Mountains

I sat around playing with painting programs yesterday. Having come home from Tucson with a cold, I felt it was best to sit around, drink tea, and rest. Since my head was still filled with visions of the wondrous mountains surrounding Tucson, I painted the mountains. Then, lo and behold,  my daily Bible reading led me to the book of Psalm 46, which mentions mountains!

I grew increasingly sick as the day progressed, which is not good since I lead a ski group Thursday. I was hoping the cold would stay mild and leave by tomorrow. It is not looking promising. So I read Psalm 46 with its promises of God who is an ever present help in trouble. In fact, His promises of refuge are stronger than the mountains! Even they will tremble and crumble before God does. The mountains which seem such powerful monuments of stability, grandeur, and strength are like putty compared to God.

This is good to remember when struggles arise. It is not that God has forgotten us, or that His strength is insufficient for the task of rescuing us. If we are left to struggle or endure trouble, He must have a reason. He who can move the mountains could blow away a cold virus should He so choose. But, if He doesn't choose...what are we to do?

The end of Psalm 46 tells us: Be still and know that I am God.

This is my favorite verse, perhaps because it is one I need to read again and again. Being still is not my forte. Mountains can be still. I cannot. But the result of our stillness before God is that as we wait, and pause, He sometimes takes action, and in the end, He is exalted.

Maybe that is why I love painting mountains. It reminds me that while God doesn't move them often, He could. I will practice being still like a mountain before my Creator.


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Psalm 46: 1-3,10
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God.
 I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"