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The hills are alive… (6 July)

The thought this week has been written by Claire Blatchford, EBA Regional Minister.

I have just returned from two weeks holiday in Scotland, staying in a cottage overlooking the southern mountain range of the Cairngorms…see picture below!

Now, don’t get me wrong, my heart is in Essex (born and bred!) but there is something about the magnitude of mountains that just fills me with wonder, and I have a desire, albeit temporary, to move to a place where the view from my window each morning looks something like this.

From a distance, the mountains look smooth, as if a blanket has been laid over them and would be easily climbed, but at a closer look they are rough, ragged and clearly not scalable by someone who is inexperienced at rock-climbing!

It probably won’t come to you as a surprise, but throughout our time there the words of Psalm 121 were running through my mind:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121: 1-2 NIVUK)

The writer of this psalm of ascent knew that the hills surrounding Jerusalem were a place of danger, they might be hiding some threat, some predator; a place where robbers would hide out ready to pounce on the unassuming traveller (Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind) and yet the first verse indicates an impulse to take refuge in them – in their midst, hidden among the hills, is the Holy City of Jerusalem .

But the psalmist does not look to nature for help – help comes from the very one who made the hills, the heavens and the earth. The hills may obscure some threat, but they also, by their very existence, bear witness to their creator and it is there that we find living, immeasurable help.

It is a beautiful poem that reminds us of what we so often forget – that we do not have to live in fear, because we have a God who keeps us. Words that offer comfort because of who God is and what he has done.

I pray that over these coming weeks of summer, you might have time to experience again the wonder of creation – whether it be in Scotland, Spain or South Essex – and that you would again witness God’s faithfulness as you look to him as your source of help, strength and refuge.