I can see the mountains from where I live. I love to look at the mountains on a clear evening, just after the sun has set behind them; they glow. They stand out so sharply against the sky that it seems as though you could prick your finger on them.

Sometimes the sky isn’t so clear. Sometimes the clouds roll in and hide the mountains to where you can’t even see them at all.

Once when the clouds had covered the mountains, my 8-year-old daughter asked me, “Are the mountains shrinking?” I replied, “Of course not. What makes you say that?” She answered, “I can’t hardly see them. It’s like they’re shrinking.”

She knew the mountains were still there, but since she couldn’t see them, she thought they might be shrinking.

God is like a mountain; strong and high and sharp and beautiful. When things are going well, we love to sit and think about how good He is to us. But life is not always clear. As a matter of fact, it’s usually stormy.

The lay off. The corporate restructuring. The report from the doctor: 6 months to live. The note from your spouse: “I’m leaving.” The deal fell through. The accusation from your child: “You don’t love me!” All of a sudden, things aren’t so clear. The clouds have rolled in and you can’t see two feet in front of you.

The normal human response is this: where did God go?
This is when I really need Him, and I can’t see Him anywhere!

There’s a story in the Bible about a man named Job. The clouds roll in on Job very quickly—his family dies, he loses his home, his land, and his source of income. He loses everything in a matter of moments. His friends don’t help him much; they tell him he must have done something to make God mad.

By the end of the book of Job, God speaks. His answer to Job has nothing to do with explaining the “why” of the circumstances of Job’s life. God’s answer to Job is a simple reminder of how big and indescribable and unfathomable He is.

God basically tells Job, “Don’t let the clouds of your present circumstances make you think that The Mountain is shrinking.”

Clouds are fairly weak next to a mountain; clouds don’t have any real substance. Clouds don’t change the size or strength of the mountain, they just block our view. They make it hard to see.

So when the clouds seem to take over, don’t ever think that The Mountain is shrinking. Close your eyes and picture the clear day. The Mountain has not changed and will never change. He is high and deep and strong.

When time is no more and this life on earth is a memory, the sun will shine forever. There won’t be clouds anymore; The Mountain will never seem to shrink.

Actually, I think it will seem to us that The Mountain has grown, for “we will see Him as He is.“