by Emily Conrad

I am struck today by the possibilities that surround me, that fill each of our lives. It’s a theme that’s woven into my life so thoroughly, now that I’m paying attention, I see it everywhere. I started looking because of this verse:

When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

Isaiah 64:3, ESV

“Awesome things” aren’t necessarily good things.

On the vacation in Banff National Park, Canada, where I took the photos in this post, we arrived at Lake Louise. Shortly after, we heard a noise like thunder. Later, we learned the noise had been a rock slide. From a distance, it was safe, but up close, it could’ve been life-ending, as the signs around the area warned. Really think about it. Can you imagine the power it’d take to make a mountain quake?

Some of the verses surrounding Isaiah 64:3 lament the state of Israel’s relationship with God. They’d wandered again and were suffering the consequences. Especially because the “awesome things” God did weren’t things they were looking for, I began to think it could possibly mean great acts of divine punishment.

But still, Isaiah 64:1-2 assured me that these awesome things could also be good:

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence–as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil–to make your name known to you adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! (ESV)

They wouldn’t be asking for God to come unless they expected good from him. And the Bible assures us that His people can expect that He will be working on their behalf. So what are these awesome things He does in our lives that we don’t look for? What mountains shake in His presence?

Jesus can cast out the mountain of sin and in its place raise up a mountain of salvation. God loves us while we are yet sinners. Before we start looking for Him, He’s seeking and loving our souls.

The mountain of hurt quakes before Him, too. There have been times when I’ve written off a relationship as ruined or toxic only for God to bring about circumstances that gave healing where I wasn’t even interested in asking for it.

The mountain of comfort zones tumbles into the sea at his command, too. We’re rarely looking for that to happen. If it weren’t for God breaking me out of my comfort zones, I wouldn’t be writing full time. He brought me here one step at a time in ways I wasn’t looking for.

When you serve a God who loves you and whose very presence causes mountains to quake, the world fills with possibilities. They float on the cool spring air. They surface in the journey to sell one house and move into a new one. They develop in the lives of family and friends.

Remember, we serve a God who can do more than we ask or think. And not only can He, He does.

What mountains have you seen trembling?