Mt Moran & Jackson Lake

As I thought about the majesty of God, this picture came to mind. My husband and I love to visit the Teton Mountains in Wyoming. They rise 7000 feet above the valley floor, a very different concept from when you’re in the higher mountains in Colorado. There, you look up and see them towering above you, yet because the elevation is so high where you are, you may miss an aspect of just how tall they really are. In viewing the Tetons, you see them shooting straight up from the ground, especially if you are driving a back road where you are fairly close to them.

Since I’ve lived most of my life on the Gulf Coast where a rise in the land may be three feet, mountains impress me and I thoroughly enjoy visiting them. They so often remind me of my heavenly Father – majestic, so much higher than I am, impenetrable, awesome. In the winter, they take on a different kind of majesty – one that becomes beautiful while at the same time, almost fearsome. You realize you could lose your life there because of the cold. We couldn’t survive in them without very warm clothes and some shelter at times.

Our God is the same way: so awesome, impenetrable, somewhat fearsome as we realize that our lives are in His hand. But totally opposite in a way also. The mountains, which I love in a way, have no feelings at all about me. But God – his heart goes out to me all the time. Even when I’m not very loving towards Him, He continues to love me. While God could crush us when we sin if He wanted, His will is that I quit that rebellion and turn to Him, learning of His great love and learning to love Him.

God says His thoughts and ways aren’t ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). That’s partly because we can’t imagine how much good He has in store for us because of His great love of us. Of course, our loving Father is so much greater than we are that it’s impossible to attain to His thoughts and His ways, but He does teach us some, as we draw closer to Him. For instance, He gives us that assurance of His love; it’s a knowing that we know that we know. A man and woman know when they deeply love the other. In the same way, we have that same kind of knowing of God’s love as we draw closer to Him. Even though He’s so very great and majestic.

God’s kindness draws us closer to Himself so that we can learn more about His nature. His mercy often keeps us from car wrecks or other disasters. Sometimes we say we’re lucky when a car came very close to sideswiping us. That wasn’t luck; it was the mercy and goodness of God. Sometimes we know instinctively to do or not to do a certain thing; that’s God’s guidance to protect us.

Ideas of God’s love and care for us could fill many pages. These are only two parts of His awesomeness. To have created the world – what would you call that? To have given His only beloved Son to die for you and me – that puts Him in a plane above all others. We respect people who have lost their children in the armed services for the sake of our freedom. But those people died for the freedom of their families and friends, their country. Jesus died for the sake of His enemies, for we were all enemies until we came to know and confess Him as Savior and Lord. That’s another part of the greatness of our God.

Yes, looking at mountains reminds me of God’s greatness and a part of that is because He created them. Something that looks so unshakable was mere dust until God created it, using whatever means He decided. And as much more majestic as a mountain is than our three-foot rise in the land near our home, so is my holy, heavenly Father than the highest mountain on this earth. I praise Him because He is Lord God Almighty.