“The mountains are calling and I must go”…
One of my favorite quotations. It is spray painted on a guard rail that overlooks the Smoky Mountains within my hometown of Franklin, NC. I was born in the Smokys, grew up seeking out their waterfalls, and still find adventure in them when I am home. My soul loves mountains. Nothing has prepared me for the majesty of the Himalayas though. Not even having seen them before 4 years prior to today.
A picture will not show you how big they are. A video will not capture the feeling they bring. I do not take my mountains back home for granted and I do not take the opportunity to visit these Himalayas again for granted. I am unsure if I will get to return to Nepal a third time after this month, but as I am sitting here…
(Yes, right here)
…right now… on Sarangkot Hill writing to you… all I can think is, “How did I get back here?”. How do you come full circle once more to a place that you never dreamed you would even get to the first time? I immediately heard the Lord’s laughter joined with a little, “Did I not tell you so?”.
He is so right. 4 years ago, before I first flew to this country, God gave me a prophetic dream that went like this:
‘I opened my eyes and saw mountains, though I was unsure which part of the world they were in. Then my eyes closed and when they opened for the second time I was staring at the ground. I bent down and wrote the word ‘AFRICA’ there in the dirt. When I stood up I looked out over the land and saw the faces of many African children looking back at me. They came along side of me, took my hands and we walked for a long time in a rainstorm. When my eyes closed and opened for a third time I was next to a great river. I was aware it was the Amazon and therefore found myself in South America. The river was lined with angels that motioned for me to come walk along the bank next to them. I wondered by them into many little homes and sat with different people chatting.’
So, here I sit at the foot of the Himalayas again with an itinerary that will land my feet on the dirt of Africa in 3 months and South America afterwards. Today I am just marveling in how He brings His plans to pass. Looking at the past years I can see where He closed doors and opened new ones. Choices that did not make sense to me. A lot of laughter and tears, but all for the purpose of slowly guiding me back to this very moment. To a prophecy fulfilled.
When I go from this mountain a part of my heart will stay to continue in wonder over this view He created. I can imagine Him guiding the tectonic plates underground to collide and violently jut these rocks up to pierce the sky during the days of creation. The thunderous sound it must have made.
They are steep and fierce and magnificent. The jungle valleys roll up into foothills that do not know the understanding of gradual incline. Just when that looks sheer your sight lifts further beyond where a barren wall of rock looms over the tiny existence of everything below, including the clouds. Up where life is unsustainable, oxygen is a lack thereof, the only sound consists of hollow winds, and crevaces are packed with feet of snow and glaciers. While they surpass the word beautiful, they also claim lives of people who attempt their summits.
Nothing quite moves me like a mountain. Especially when they are a vision of a prophecy coming to pass. This range was particularly marvelous at 5:30 am today when that ball of fire peeped over the ridge and slowly drenched the iced slopes from tip to base in light.
I watched Fishtale and Annapurna illuminate in the dawn and have remained laying here through three in the afternoon just ravishing within the Lord’s and mountain’s presences. My words on this page will never be enough. Mountains call me, God is faithful, and I hope you make it here someday…
