T U N D R A.  I went to Rocky Mountain National Park a week or two ago.  I found myself hiking through alpine tundra.  DO NOT WALK ON THE TUNDRA a sign read.  Don’t worry Mr. Park Ranger…I stayed on the footpath.  The sign surprised me because tundra is not the most dazzling living thing to see up in the mountains let alone actually be protected by my size 11 shoes.

Tundra literally translates “uplands.” Thanks Wikipedia.  Essentially, tundra is a desolate but beautiful, velvety vegetation that lives above the tree line.  This treeless mountain tract is conflicted.  It is fragile but strong, grand but unassuming, inviting but hostile.  Due to the harsh climate and short growing season, the tundra seems to be void of life, wasting the view the uplands even provide.  Whether a wild flower, a pika foraging for food, or a tourist just passing through the same rule applies.  Hold on, settle in if you can, but if you can't, don’t be long because the harsh and turbulent weather will arrive sooner than you expect.

After reading the fine print on the rules and regulations of the tundra, it made more sense to not trample these seemingly unimportant plants.  If vegetation at that altitude is damaged it takes roughly 1,000 years to regenerate to a state prior to my size 11 boot stomping around on them.  I’ll leave the statistics to the scientist, but I guess the moral of the story is that it takes a long time for damage to be repaired.  I got to thinking that life is much like this.  My story, your story, have footprints all over it due to traumatic life events, deep wounds of rejection and hurt, and even negligent and ignorant harm done from another in the tundra of your life.  This damage happens at high altitudes, in places hard to reach and not everyone is willing to live at such a harsh climate to wait and see these wounds in their story repaired.

We can learn much from the T U N D R A.  Healing takes a long time.  Damage leaves a lasting impression.  Give respect to the process and continue your steady hike to the high places of life.  Even though many relational wounds will take a long time to heal, beauty and life still reside in these fragile places.  As people stomp through the tundra of your story, be willing to wait, accept the reality that others have a lasting impact on you, and be amazed and undone by the beauty that can only be seen and experienced from such a place, high on the alpine tundra.