Out Our Way: I will lift my eyes - Psalm 121

Out our way we are blessed with what I call "The Big Open." Tourists driving through the area often see nothing but the highway. This is cattle country and while many farmers grow wheat and other crops, it is also a place of vast pastures and even some open range. Yet it is not totally flat.

To the south are the Bear Paws - not as majestic as the Rockies, but inspiring nonetheless. And to the west are the incredible Sweetgrass Hills suddenly rising out of the plains. On some special days when the weather is just right, I could go up a ridge and see the Bear Paws and go a little further, see the sunlight on the Sweetgrass. I am not sure what it is about such sights that always fills me with awe and wonder - but even living amongst them, I never took them for granted. Even pushing cows with Charley in the small Tiger Ridge area often gave me pause to sense the Hand of God all around me when we topped a rise and paused to gaze over the plains all the way to Canada.

There is something about hills and mountains that invoke thoughts of God. When the Sioux migrated into what is now South Dakota they were awed by the "Paha Sapa" - the Black Hills. To this day they are considered sacred and there are places unknown to most tourists that are reserved for prayer and communion with "Wakan Tanka" - God. The Temple of the Lord was built on a mountain top, Mount Zion, and today the site is deemed sacred by Christians, Jews and Moslems alike. 

A few years ago, I moved to western Colorado to be with my sons and I am surrounded by hills. To the east is the Grand Mesa, to the north the bleak and yet awesome red rocks known simply as the Bookcliffs. And to the west is the vast high rising hills of the Colorado National Monument. And each morning I am able to begin my day with prayer and "raise my eyes to the hills."

Of course, one doesn't need hills or mountains to find inspiration, for reminders of God are everywhere. People see His Hand in a flower, a tree, even a patch of grass. And for those who are wise, they will find even greater reminders of God's glory in their neighbor ... for we are all created in the image of God.

The mountains and hills declare the glory of the Lord as do the skies and the sea and plains. But God is not in them. They are but His creations given to us as reminders. But God IS in my neighbor, His beloved ones. In each person God is at work. We are all a "work in progress" and if I seek to see in them what God is doing, I slowly begin to see them as God does.

I see the Hand of God in what He created when I lift up my eyes to the hills-and I am blessed. But if I can see God at work in my neighbor and realize He is working on me as well - I am even more in awe and aware of His glory. I will lift my eyes to the hills and remember from where my help shall come. I will lift my eyes to my neighbor - and God grants me the blessing of seeing her/him as God's beloved - a work on progress - that person is no longer a stranger. And as I begin to see them with God's Eyes, I also begin to see myself as also beloved and open to being fashioned into a true man of God and a disciple of Christ. 

In the meantime, let us be patient with each other. It took millions of years to raise up the Rockies ... let us give God time to raise us up as well. We are a work in progress and God isn't finished with us yet. 

Be blessed and be a blessing

Brother John - Still under construction

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write "Out Our Way."