This Saturday I went to skiing in the ANDES! The Andes mountains are the highest mountains outside of Asia. I hadn't been skiing since middle school, so I was a little anxious about my skiing ability. The mountains are just about 15 minutes outside Santiago, but it took over an hour to drive up the mountain. About 20 of my classmates came along. At the end of the day, I was super tired and super sore, but I had so much fun!
The view from the top of the hill was by far the most beautiful I've ever seen. We were so high on the mountains that we could see the cloud layer way below us. The pictures don't do the view justice, because when seen in person, it looks like the mountains and sky go on forever.
I had been feeling a little distanced from God since I arrived here. This is partly due to the fact that I'm so far away from all the familiar things that I normally associate with God--church, friends, home, etc., and partly due to the fact that things have been going so well and time is just flying by. It's a dangerous thing for me--when things are going a bit too swimmingly--because I start to believe it's by my own doing, and not the Lord's. When I am not actively facing a challenge in my life, I start to lose sight of God's sovereignty and control. Does this make sense?
Once I recognized this issue in myself, I began spending even more time in Scripture and prayer, but nothing really seemed to speak to me. It's been especially difficult to maintain my relationship with the Lord since I have not been able to go to church since I arrived in Chile and since I've been away from my InterVarsity community.
Being in such a beautiful place as the Andes was just what my heart had been looking for. How can someone come to a place like this and deny the existence of God? To say the mountains came about by random chance is somewhat understandable. To say that humans developed eyes by random chance is also understandable. To say, however, that something as awesome as the Andes and the ability to see them in such great detail exist solely by random chance and without the influence of our God is impossible. The Lord did not have to create such beauty--he could have made earth a lot more boring. He also did not have to give us eyes to see--we could have gotten along just fine in some other manner. But he did both of these things, which is proof to me that he knew exactly what he was doing upon creating the earth and upon the creation of each human being. As Psalm 139 says, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." It's no mistake that these mountains are so beautiful, and it's no mistake that the Lord gave us eyes to see them. God created such beauty for his and our enjoyment, to captivate our hearts, and give us just a taste of his majesty.
I feel so thankful for the chance to go skiing on Saturday not just because it was fun, but because of the way it awakened my heart. Again, it's no mistake that I went skiing when I did--the Lord knew it was just what I needed to captivate my heart again.
I am reminded of Psalm 139:
"Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast."
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