Life at the top.......We live at 8000 ft here in Marble. So the mountains that surround us are from 11,000 to 13,000 plus feet. Their peaks proclaim their glory above the tree line. Their world is a place unique unto itself. I have been at the top during the summer and know first hand how different each peak is and the life that exists there that lives no where else. So I have experienced their uniqueness.

However during the winter their world is untouchable and I find myself longing to see it up close but knowing that the environment during the winter is not so welcoming to mankind. On one hike I saw the curving outline of a broken shelf of snow that had been an avalanche of some sort on Mount Daly. I stood in wonder that so much was going on up there that we are not even aware of. Did an elk or a mountain goat get trapped as the snow rushed down in a violence that takes life in a moment? We know that well here in Marble. Some people take to the back country to attempt skiing some of these untouched snowy peaks. We lost a skier on Marble Mountain in December in an avalanche.

On another hike I looked back at Whitehouse and Purple Mountains and beheld the wind at the top swirling the snow in swirling wisps and swirling mini tornadoes. The sight of this occurrence as I stood in the brilliant sun amazed me. I even laughed out loud like a child. "Look the snow is dancing!"

I have longed all winter to get back to the range of mountains where Purple Mountain stands out. This longing comes because I hiked below it a couple times in the summer. I want to see it with all the snow pack because it is untouched by man. You cannot get there safely in the winter and I just long to see the untouched beauty. However that beauty is deceiving in that to go there would be dangerous. It is not a country to take for granted. Its beauty lives with danger and requires human respect. It amazes me that "life at the top" is so different and holds in its crevasses a world of its own.

So for now I must wait till summer to once again be at the top. Yet my heart is stirred by their magnificent display! Each winter peak tempts me and calls me by name. "Behold," they say, "We are God's handiwork. Look up, look heavenward, your creator knows all, sees all, loves all. Behold," they say, "God, like our peaks cannot be grasped in His entireness by mere humans. But He opens His arms to all who will come."

"Some of the Pharisees in the crowds said to Jesus, ''teacher rebuke your disciples!"
"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:39-40

So perhaps the mountains actually do "cry out," pointing me to my Creator!