Mountain high

Today's been a good day. This morning we took the Banff Gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain. It's about 8,000 feet high, and the cable car ride was pretty scary as I'm not over keen on heights. At points, the cable seemed a long way from the ground! I confess, I didn't think too much of the ride, but when we got to the top it was really worth it. I'll probably blog a few thoughts about the trip over the next couple of days, so will just share one thought today.When you get out of the cable car and into the visitor centre there's another fairly lengthy walk along a boardwalk to the very summit. The walk is not that long, but it's cold and very tiring. There are many steps and the air seems really thin. A number of others were giving up without getting to the top - Lyn and I persisted.Although we are now into spring and the official winter season is over, there was still a lot of snow on the ground. As we journeyed the board way we were joined by a number of goats; fairly large and obviously very hardy. Some were just sitting in the snow, others were foraging for food (and appearing quite successful). A couple decided to go for a walk right along the edge of the mountain - we were sure they were going to fall over the edge! We wondered how on earth they got up there and why on earth they stayed there? It was freezing, icy, damp (from the low clouds) and yet strangely airless.

To us it might seem an odd place to live, but it's what these animals were made for. Their natural habitat. Take them down to sea level and the heat of the desert and they wouldn't last 5 minutes.

It was a visual reminder that we aren't all the same. We feel comfortable in different surroundings and doing different things - because God made us that way. In 1 Corinthians 12: 27-28, Paul writes about the way God has gifted and made us as individuals: Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

I'm grateful we are not all the same and that we are able to respond differently to the situations we find ourselves in. And, by the way, we had a great time on the 'mountain top'!