Today I visited Bella Vista. Not Bella Vista, Panama City, but truly a bella vista: beautiful view. We hiked up a decidedly tortuous trail through the mud and thicket and up the sides of a mountain overlooking Base Camp in the valley, and after a solid half hour of batting branches out of my face and feeling my feet squish through the mud (did I mention it was raining?), it all became worth it. From where we stood perched, I saw the entire valley sprawled out in front of me, with patches of forest, rolling hills, and great mountains looming over the horizon shrouded in mist from the rain. I wish I could hold on to that image forever, I know no photograph could hope to do it justice. The sheer size of it all was awe inspiring.
All of this just moments after crossing a tiny ant highway, where thousands of miniscule leaf cutter ants running back and forth through the jungle has formed a perfect, clear dirt path no longer than three or four inches across but stretching on and on seemingly endlessly. From the tiniest ants to the great mountains, nature's beauty and complexity is overly apparent everywhere around us here in the valley, and along with it the glory of God.
"By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy." -Psalms 65:5-13
