The lyrics say:  On top of Old Smokey / All covered with snow / I lost my true lover / from courting too slow…

I’ve never stood on top of a mountain called Old Smokey, but I have hiked to the top of Whiteside Mountain in North Carolina many times.  My husband and I hiked it in all seasons.  Sometimes there was ice and snow on the trail; other times, the blooms of spring and summer.  One thing that did not change though – the magnificent view of the valleys and hills below.  Just a while before, we had been standing in a parking area surrounded by trees, an information board and porta-potties.  Now we were watching the hawks soar below our vantage point. 

I think about hiking to the top of a mountain every time I read Psalm 61:2 –

“I call to You when my heart is overwhelmed and weak; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I [a rock that is too high to reach without Your help].”  (AMP version)

Here’s the great thing about climbing higher… your vision is no longer limited. 

Where before you were just looking at trees, and could only see a few feet ahead, now, with the new perspective of height, you can see for miles and miles. 

YES!  Lead me to the rock that is higher than where I am currently located! 

I don’t want the limited vision of my perspective.  I want to see what the Lord wants me to see; the new perspective of the unlimited vision of faith.  I want to see what can happen when God is in the equation.  I want to see the bigger picture painted by trust and obedience rather than the 4×6 snapshot of fear and doubt.  And I want to believe that God’s view includes “immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine!” (Eph. 3:20)

Yeah, you may lose a “true lover” on the top of Old Smokey, but the only thing lost by following God to the top the higher Rock is the limited views of the valley. 

I’ll trade His perspective for mine any day!