Stillness
By Ken and Jan Merop
Cleveland, Tennessee
“If you can walk, you can snowshoe,” said the clerk in answer to my questions about abilities for this sport.
Wow, I thought. I’m a walker.
At that time, I had been walking about four miles each morning. So, I felt good about renting snowshoes to trek the trails in Rocky Mountain National Park.
I loved traipsing through deep snow without any problem. I knew I’d gladly do it again. In fact, we own snowshoes now in North Carolina and await snow that would require using them. So, far they are on a shelf in our closet.
However, it wasn’t just the freedom and discovery of doing this that thrilled me. It was the beauty of stillness that comes only with snow.
Out there in the park, gorgeous Evergreen trees draped gracefully in snow whispered ‘welcome;’ and I experienced a satisfaction and harmony of spirit in the hush surrounding me and my husband Ken.
I’m sure nature lovers all experience something akin to that even when just walking along as the snow is falling. It is a quiet that is almost loud while not making any sound at all.
However, when you know the Maker of the snow and the trees, the mountains and the streams, the grand waterfalls and the tiniest of creatures…not to mention human beings…ah, the quietness is internal.
The Bible says in Job 38:22 NKJV “Have you entered the treasury of snow?”
Then Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
So then, to know that kind of stillness is to silence one’s fears with God’s promises. It is to make calm…an internal quietness indicating a rest of my spirit through the presence of the Holy Spirit that also produces outward evidence that he indwells me.
We can be sitting in a chair in contemplation to be still. But internal stillness speaks to me of Christ’s rest…knowing I belong to him and he to me. It is rest not from inactivity, but in life’s activity.
If my entire being is at rest in Jesus Christ, I have found my quintessence. And stillness is evident.
- Patrick, in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary puts it this way, “…not the rest of inactivity but of the harmonious working of all the faculties and affections…of will, heart, imagination, conscience – because each has found in God the ideal sphere for its satisfaction and development.”
Stillness. It’s the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4: 7) which will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.” Selah
Frosty Covering
The quiet expectation alive within the snowy atmosphere
was an invitation for us to walk slowly under its canopy.
As we inhaled the clean mountain air and
observed the delicate etchings of the snow’s designs,
we luxuriated in the artistry of our Creator’s hand.
“All things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him
all things consist.”
Colossians 1: 16 & 17
_________________________________________
After six years in the mountains of Avery County, Ken and Jan Merop are now living in the hilly Tennessee countryside of Cleveland, TN…just outside of Chattanooga. Ken’s photos can be seen at kenmeropphotography.com.
Read more Christian news from Ken and Jan HERE.
_________________________________________
