The Alps

A little over a year ago, Philip and I missed our flight into Paris for the start of a beautiful European vacation. As a consequence of this mishap, we were re-routed into Switzerland for a brief layover before sojourning on to our appointed destination. It was in the descent into and ascent out of Switzerland that I first encountered them: the Alps.

I wish I had taken a photograph of this majestic mountain range. Since I did not, I will attempt to describe it here. From my sky-view, I perceived what I thought were rigid clouds suspended within the crystal blue ceiling. Upon closer investigation, however, I realized those rigid clouds were not clouds at all, but pinnacles, pointed peaks, penetrating the hazy atmosphere, and the serene drifting of the actual clouds, the actual vapor, blanketing the mountaintops is what gave me the impression that these pointed peaks were suspended, apart from their bases, lifted out of the earth and floating towards the heavens.

As we descended towards the lush green earth, my vision could not even contain the whole of one mountain, and I saw, that in spite of the fact that these structures appeared, from the air, to be floating in the atmosphere, they were, in fact, rooted to the ground on foundations far more imposing than their jagged spires.

We spent no more than an hour total in Switzerland before heading off to resume our journey into Paris, but the Alps made an impression on me. So firm, so unmoving, so unconditional and solid.

In my microcosm in this life, my dad is my Alps. He has always been solid, stable, and his love is unconditional. He taught me how to love, and his was the first visage of God's love to my humble life. As the Alps, in their majesty, somehow connect the heavens and the earth, my dad has done the same in my life through his deep, unmoving love and his selflessness, which has been a picture to me of the way Christ loves.

This week, my Alps have experienced what in my mind is absolutely unthinkable. My Alps have suffered an earthquake. As my dad sleeps in his hospital bed, preparing for a day of open heart surgery, I pray that God's love will blanket him, and that even my love can weave strands through God's blanket, and that God will allow my dad to survive this disaster and recover quickly. The Alps, after all, are an integral part of the world's landscape.