Sea of Mountains

I scanned the mountainous horizon with my phone and watched as an outline of each peak magically appeared across the screen, along with the names that belonged to them. 

Standing prominently in front of me were The Priest and Spy Rock, two mountains I had climbed with my sister three weeks prior. Off in the distance, I spotted Carter’s Mountain, where I once picked apples with my kids soon after arriving in Virginia. Directly behind me was Three Ridges, the peak that my husband and I had just crossed over. Then there was the one named Big Butt. That one just made me laugh.

Stowing my phone, I rescanned with my eyes. Simple black outlines were replaced with blue-hued, three-dimensional earth waves. 

A blue sea of mountains lay before me. And for a split second, I was gazing out at the ocean. In the same way sunlight’s spectrum is scattered, giving the ocean its blue color, the Blue Ridge Mountains receive their blue haze from sunlight reacting with the isoprene released by the trees. 

Mountains and sea converged before me, as heights and depths were written on the horizon.

I wondered if I pulled out my phone and scanned once more, if Romans 8:38-39 might appear on the screen.

Paul wrote, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Roughly a week later, I stood at the edge of the Gulf during Holy Week. Watery peaks consumed my view until they met the sky on the horizon. 

Even if we were to stand on the highest mountain or plunge to the bottom of the deepest body of water, God’s love for us is infinitely higher and far deeper. There is literally nothing that can separate us from his love. 

For it was on a cross on a hill and through an empty tomb carved into a cliffside that God demonstrated the ultimate love and sacrifice for us. 

Each of us. He knows us by name–just as he knows each star in the night sky, the number of hairs on our heads, and the name of each mountain peak. 

Even Big Butt.

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