Readings for today: Job 35-37, Psalms 144
A few years ago, I summited Mt. Sneffels. It’s one of 54 “fourteeners” (peaks rising above 14,000’) in Colorado and is known as the “Queen of the San Juans” because of the amazing views of the surrounding peaks and valleys. Those who know me well know how much I love hiking and climbing. Sneffels was peak number 15 for me and I’ve climbed several others multiple times. None of them are easy. In order to summit a 14er, one has to hit the trail very early. Sometimes before the sun comes up. You typically ascend thousands of feet so your legs take a beating. Sometimes there’s a nice trail, sometimes not. Depending the route, you can be dangerously exposed both to the weather or a potential fall. Many of them are over 10 miles round trip. You race the clock to beat the afternoon storms before they roll in. But the payoff is definitely worth it. Standing on the summit makes you feel like you’re on top of the world.
It’s also makes you feel very small. I think about the words we’ve been reading from Job when I think about my time on Sneffels or any of the 14’ers I’ve been blessed to climb. Words like “Do you know how God directs his clouds or makes their lightning flash? Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonderful works of him who has perfect knowledge? can you help God spread out the skies as hard as a cast metal mirror? Out of the north he comes, shrouded in a golden glow; awesome majesty surrounds him. The Almighty — we cannot reach him — he is exalted in power!” (Job 37:15-16, 18, 22-23 CSB) I can still see myself in my mind’s eye standing on the summit. It was a picture-perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky. I could see for miles and still my view was so limited. I could not see the foundations of the mountain on which I stood. I could not see to the end of the green valleys that stretched out before me. I could never determine the measurements of peaks that ranged all around. Only God knows these things. He laid the foundations of the earth. He stretched out His line and determined the height of each of the 54 14,000’ peaks as well as the 637 13,000’ peaks and the more than 1,500 12,000’ peaks. God laid the cornerstone for each and every one. He sunk the base of Mt. Sneffels deep into the earth so it would never tremble or fall. Reflecting on His omnipotence as I stood surveying the vastness of His creation took my breath away.
And then God showed me something even greater. As humbled as I was by the creative power of God, I was even more humbled by His righteousness. His holiness. His purity. The chasm that exists between the Triune God in all His splendor and majesty and glory and a weak and ruined sinner like me dwarfs any mountain I could ever climb. No matter how hard I try, I can never ascend to God. No matter how far I walk, I can never draw close to God. No matter how early I rise, there simply isn’t enough time for me to work out my own salvation. Shall someone like me find fault with God? Am I that foolish that I would put God in the wrong so that I might be right? If I am honest, the answer is yes. I am that foolish. In fact, my foolishness knows no bounds. I contend against God daily in thought, word, and deed. I often act as if I know best. I believe down deep that I am the master of my own fate, the captain of my own destiny. And when things go sideways in my life, my first instinct is often to complain to God. To act as I’ve been wronged or put out or somehow unfairly treated. Frankly, I am more than willing to condemn God in order to justify myself.
Thankfully, God isn’t done with me yet and He wasn’t done revealing Himself on top of that mountain. Like the great prophet Isaiah, I know “I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…” (Isaiah 6:5 CSB) And still God loves me. Tears came to my eyes as I thought about the vastness of God’s love. It is wider than the valleys that lay before me. It is higher than the mountain peaks that surrounded me. It is truly measureless, boundless, infinite in scope. Despite my own limitations, I know there is an end to the earth. Given the right instruments and training, I know I could find the foundations of the mountains. I could stretch out a line across the valleys. I could even weigh the planet on a scale. Not so with God’s love. I cannot fathom it’s reach. I cannot grasp it’s heights or depths, it’s length or it’s breadth. It’s logic escapes me. It’s faithfulness astounds me. There simply is nothing like it in all creation.
Readings for tomorrow: Job 38-39, Psalms 145