I work with people from all over the country and when they learn I’m from Denver, they always assume that means I live in the mountains. Now, I don’t live in Denver proper, but a suburb. But Denver is also not “in” the mountains. In fact, it’s on the plains, a little further west you have the foothills and then you get to the towering Rocky Mountains. Wide open spaces have surrounded me for most of my life. Okay, yes, I’ve always lived in a nice little suburban neighborhood, but fields are far closer than the city.
We live East…high up on the plains, or rather the rolling plains. A top of the hills we have some amazing views, far more amazing than most of the place in Colorado. Yesterday, we drove into the city. It had recently snowed, so the mountains were white topped peaks in the distance, the sun shone brightly and the sky was bright blue. These are my favorite days. I can’t help but be drawn to the beauty and majesty of the mountains running the entire length of the Western horizon. As we drove closer to the city, the view changed. The mountains got bigger, but lost some of the amazing-ness…we could see more details in the foothills, but the view of the bigger mountains is stunted with these huge hills being so close. I told Zach, so many people in Denver miss out on the true beauty of these mountains, they look far better out where we live. Zach told me I need to go take some pictures, but the camera can never get even a fraction of the beauty, majesty and scope.
Today we were stopped at a light on top of one of our eastern hills. Directly in front of us was a beautiful view of Pike’s Peak, to the right, as far as we could see, down our car and out the back window were the rest of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, snow-capped under a grey sky. A few moments later, the clouds over the mountains opened up to allow the sun through. The peaks, glowed under the grey sky. It always amazes me. It never gets old.
My sister moved away several years ago. She now lives on the ocean, no mountain peaks to view daily. When she was visiting last year, we were driving around and she said, “Oh, wow! The mountains are beautiful. I must have always taken them for granted and not paid attention.” Now, she had seen the mountains, she knew they were gorgeous, but it’s so easy to lose the breath-taking wonder when you see it everyday.
The mountains speak God’s love to me. Every time I see them, I’m reminded of his grace. It is rare that I don’t notice them, I’ve always been filled with wonder when I see them. I love the little sneaking peek I get of them from my kitchen window, especially as I’m cooking dinner and the sun it blazing beautiful oranges, pinks and purples across the sky. It brings a smile to my face – God saying, “I love you!”
