This summer we spent several weeks in Washington at my family’s beach place. If you follow us on social media I’m sure you have seen the picturesque views from our magical spot in the NW. We are situated on Case Inlet and have an incredible view of the Olympic Mountains. We spend our evenings watching the sunset over the mountains while we chat fireside with our beach family and friends. But toward the end of our trip we couldn’t see the mountains at all.

It was smoke. Not cloud-cover or misty overcast mornings. It was eerie, dense, tear-producing smoke.

The fires from Canada brought down so much smoke we couldn’t see the mountains right in front of us. I KNEW they were there, but they were invisible through the smoke. As I sat and listened to worship music I stared out at where the mountains should have been, daring them to come into focus. They did not.

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,’ move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

Isn’t that a curious verse? I have a lot of climbers in my family and I assure you, they have never seen an actual mountain move–nor have I. (But if you have call me! I want to hear about it.)

The thought of our smoky mountains kept twirling around in my brain. I took a photo, believing that God was trying to communicate something to me.

At the time, I had a “mountain” of worry, stress, pain, and relational trauma. I knew that I would be going home to California to a life that would look very different. I knew people were talking about my family (not in the good way). People that I loved were no longer associating with me. It was overwhelming at times, but I began to see God in the smoke. As if he was saying to me,

“Sometimes I hide the mountains. Sometimes I let smoke cover up the mountain of emotional pain. Trust me, look at me, let me cover up the pain. You don’t need to stare at that. Focus on me. Look closer–at what is right in front of you. If you obsess about the mountains it’s going to burn your eyes. Look to me. I’m blocking the mountains so you’ll see I’m right here…with you. ”

And here’s a bonus layer to the metaphor: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Fire destroys… and fire refines.

I’m trusting the God who is right here WITH me to shift the winds, and to turn this destruction into a refining, purifying, and clarifying fire.

He’s done it before… He’ll do it again. For us… and for you.

-Hilary