Change of View

This morning while driving across the border through customs, I was thinking about the beautiful scenery of Mt. Baker, WA that one normally sees on a clear day.  This mountain is a landmark for miles around.  It has a solid mantle of white snow year round, being in the Northern Cascades and is a volcano that occasionally puffs some smoke.  Mt. Baker is a solid, massive chunk of mountain...always there when you look on a sunny day.  A quick scan of the horizon is reassuring of it's constant presence.  It's immutable or unchanging, never going away.

But today as I was driving, the view of Mt. Baker was quite different.  Bring in a change of the weather and your view is drastically altered, as in the little watercolor study I did below:

Mt. Baker was nowhere to be found.  If I was brand new to the area, you would never get me to believe that a huge, beautiful snow-capped 10,781 ft. mountain existed.  All I could see was dark, misty clouds draping what lower mountains were visible.  I missed my sunny day view of Baker.  I wanted it back so I could enjoy its stunning magnificence.  But I know in my heart that it is still there, just not for today's enjoyment.  I will look forward to when the weather forecast beams with sunshine again.  

Art often is a metaphor of life for me.  And as with this reminder today, I find some solid things that are true.  One is that God is unchanging.  He is always there, being eternal, even though life brings many changes.  The weather changes all the time, but the mountain is still there, whether I see it or not.  Psalm 62 describes God as being like a rock and a fortress where one can never be shaken.  That is solid stuff and you can hang your heart on it!

Be brave and courageous!