The Great Mountain

The men on the ship crowded port side as the mountain shook in the distance. A terrible thing was about to happen.

The mountain trembled like the lower lip on the face of Earth, and it grew in violence. It was a massive mountain, forged in the very center of Earth, unparalleled in brilliance. And yet, here it was, shuddering with horror, ready to burst into a million shards and grace these sailors with its spiteful omnipotence. Not only was the mountain itself quaking, but the ground around it was pounding, the water beside it, pulsing. The waves began to grow, outward and faster toward the men on the boat.

The men scurried to their positions and tried with all their might to evade the shattering landscape around them, but the mountain overtook them. They were tossed in the tumultuous waves, the worst storm any of them had seen, and all this with sunny skies above. The ship struggled to hold its own, the men on her praying and cursing alike.

Then the mountain culminated in a billion tremors, veins popping, muscles snapping, and with a mammoth descent, tumbled into the heart of the sea. Boulders shot through the sky, cannonballs in the midst of a raging battle, and rained fiery terror upon the sailors. How small was the ship now, compared to the magnificence of the mountain? The poor vessel was pummeled and destroyed, the men left to fend for themselves. Most of them heaved overboard with the hope of survival. Those who stayed accepted their fate kneeling, arms wide and face lifted to the sky. They were soon to be a distant memory.

Within minutes, it was over. The war had ceased, the waters had stilled. All again was quiet. The screams of terror that pierced the air moments before were all but forgotten, remembered only by the calm sea as it carelessly swallowed up the remains of the once mighty vessel and its fateful crew.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”

Psalm 46:1-3