I LOOK TO THE HILLS

It was early morning and as I looked out across the space to the hills in the distance and I heard this verse: “I will lift my eyes to the hills…’ That is always easy and enjoyable for me to do. The verse continues, “from where my strength (help) comes from.’ The naturalist in us could stop there and have a pleasant morning. But the scripture doesn’t stop there.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalms 121:1-2) or, as Peterson writes in The Message (MSG), “I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.”

As I sat quietly that morning I made these notes: ‘As I look at the hills, where does my strength come from?’ It comes from whoever made the hills. The strength must be from faith that is beyond the pleasure of beauty. Faith can be generated from imagination, if the imagination is of a Father making mountains. Then, imagination becomes a kind of reality that produces faith. That reality is looking to the hills. To the Mountain Maker.

To be in an Edenic garden environment is to return our body, mind and soul to what is normal and homecoming. Normal is the perfect hospitality of the garden as we enter as guests.

So it was, another morning at Costanoa.

“To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” Jesus