When I was 12 years old, I went to Colorado with my dad and my sisters. We did a little tour of the state, which required maps that we unfolded onto our laps, and we set up our tent in a different place each night. We swam in springs at the bases of mountains and made snow angels on the peaks, and we listened to songs that we now can’t listen to without thinking of Colorado. The word “big” gained new meaning and the color of the sky was a brand new shade of blue. I still think about how some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen are just normal things to the people that live there. I remember driving through a little town that sat in a valley between two mountains. It seemed like such an odd, yet perfect, place to live.
Just like that little town, I am currently in a valley.
God is next to me. Him and I are sitting in an open field, with the almost-set sun on our faces. We are having one of those conversations where words are minutes apart, because there is so much thinking that goes into each question and answer that we have. There is tension between us because He has asked me to do something I really really don’t want to do. Behind us is a mountain that I feel like I just climbed. The mountain that I was so happy to leave behind me.
For the past six months, I have been distracted by this pretty field, which I tumbled into after the mountain. With a very full heart, I have been able to run and dance and sing with God. No shortness of breath, no falls, no questioning when it will be over. I have loved every second, celebrating freedom and being able to talk about the mountain in the past tense. The weight is gone, my prayers were answered, and there is so much joy.
Then, God asked me to sit down with Him. He said “Megan, lift your eyes up from this pretty field.” My eyes left the flowers, met the bright sun, and then landed where I least expected them to.
Another mountain.
I cried and asked why and said “After the mountain that I already climbed????? I made it!!! To this field!! I did it! I am here! With you!!!!! And now you’re asking me to leave this pretty field and climb ANOTHER mountain???”
This leads to the tension-filled conversation I mentioned earlier. God and I are sitting with our chins up as if we are in the front row at the movie theater, looking at this new mountain in silence. The sun has now set behind it, leaving an outline that I keep looking away from. Instead, I look at the pretty field, wishing and begging that I could just stay here forever.
But God looks at me, and says with such promise, “Oh Megan, just wait. The field on the other side of that mountain is even prettier than this one.”
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The mountain ahead of me does not make the field less pretty, just like the pretty field didn’t make the last mountain less steep. But the best part is that I get to take some flowers from the pretty field and replant them on the mountain ahead of me, for the next person to find.
“You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12
