Mountains and Molehills
By Jack Wyman
It rises in majestic splendor and intimidating triumph.
Clothed in breathtaking beauty and shrouded in mystery, it ascends 5.5 miles amidst the ancient Himalayas.
It’s the earth’s highest mountain.
Its Tibetan name means Holy Mother.
Sir George Everest, a British surveyor with no connection to the mountain, opposed it being named for him when it was first suggested by the British Surveyor General of India in 1856. Everest argued that the name could not be pronounced by the natives of India. A humble man, his objections were overruled. Everest never saw the mountain named in his honor.
As of 2019, more than 300 people have perished attempting to climb Mount Everest. The mountain has entombed many of them. Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand mountaineer, gained immortality by being the first person to reach the summit of Everest in May, 1953.
The great mountains of the world stand unmoved and unmovable. In their awesome silence they epitomize strength and security. They can also symbolize obstacles of formidable indifference. We associate them with barriers, burdens, problems, and challenges.
You may have faced—or be facing now—a mountain in your own life. You can’t climb over it or around it. You can’t dig a tunnel under it. It sits squarely in the pathway of your happiness. It may bring you frustration, fear, discouragement, or heartache.
Mountains come in different sizes and at different places and times. Some involve health or finances; households or work; relationships or choices. Families can face mountains. So can churches, businesses, and communities. Nations face mountains. So does the world.
Mountains can be personal and private. They can be social, political and global. Whatever they are or whenever they come, they are seldom easy. Mountains can be stubborn things. They can appear insurmountable.
God speaks to a discouraged Israel through His prophet Isaiah. “I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall be exalted” (Isaiah 49:11).
God says He will do this. Is there any greater reliability or assurance? Is there anything at all that God says He will do that He doesn’t? Is there any source of authority more comforting or dependable? What God has purposed, He will perform.
“I will. . .”
God says He will make all His mountains a way. There is no mountain too big for God. There is no obstacle too great; no hindrance too high; no complexity too deep or too broad. There is no grief too inconsolable, no defeat too final, or disappointment too bitter. God embraces all the mountains of your life. Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing at all.
God calls the mountains His own. “I will make all My mountains a way . . .”
God made the mountains. They are His. Every one of them.
God’s people thought He had abandoned them. That He’d forgotten them in their exiled captivity. God said that was impossible; a preposterously untenable idea, a denial of who God is, a denunciation of His very nature.
God asks, does a nursing mother forget her child? Perhaps some may. But know this, God tells you and me: I will never forget you. I have written you on the very palms of My hands.
“All these things are against me!” cried Jacob in his short-sighted despair (Genesis 42:36). The truth was just the opposite. God was working all “these things” together for Jacob’s good, and for the good of his family, including his favored son Joseph.
We too often see God only through our circumstances. When we choose to see our circumstances—whatever those are—through our trust in God, then He transforms our vision. We realize then that the invisible plans and purposes of God are far greater and transcendent than even our steepest mountain.
The mountains in our lives are God’s. They are there by His appointment, according to His will, and for His glory. They are there for us—because God is for us.
The Cold War was a massive mountain of perennial distrust, unremitting global tension, and unceasing rivalry. The recent death of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at 91 is a reminder of the extraordinary international events that took place in the latter years of the 20th century and changed the world forever.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Few believed that Ronald Reagan’s bold and unequivocal challenge to the Soviet Union would ever come to pass. Because Gorbachev and Reagan were courageous and visionary leaders willing to work together for the cause of humankind, the wall of resistance and oppression came down and a suffering humanity was set free.
Global mountains remain but God was at work in the world and in the hearts of nations and their leaders. The Cold War ended and America won it. What was once seen as impossible became reality.
Is God done? Has He quit? Has He left us? Are we on our own?
Not on your life. Is God done? Has He quit? Has He left us? Are we on our own?
Not on your life.
“Prepare the way of the Lord,” proclaims Isaiah, “make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." (Isaiah 40:3-4)
God is here. He is with us. He is at work.
"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah 40: 5).
Whatever mountain you may be facing—and we all do at some point—remember always that God is sovereign. He will never forget you; He will never forsake you, and He will never stop loving you, beyond all that you could possibly hope or think.
You are inscribed on the palms of His hands.
God made the mountains. They are His. He will use them to make a way for you. And since He knows most of us don’t have even the faith of a mustard seed—that we might command the mountains to be removed—He will always act on our behalf, remaining ever faithful.
God can turn any mountain into a molehill.
To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.
WE NEED YOU! Would you consider partnering with us as a monthly donor to support the work of our nonprofit ministry? Or maybe a generous one-time donation?