On Friday, I was high up in the hills of Peru in a town called Andahuaylas. When the plane first landed I was greeted with a stunning view of mountains terraced to their tops, the enigmatic sign of a people scratching out a living – barely. How could such beauty speak also to such hardship?

Driving down into the valley and then walking up into the foothills, I was, once again, caught up in the rugged scenery; I felt at home here and that says a lot because I have been to a lot of countries, and walked a lot of terrains. There are very few places where I feel at home.

I have seen many forms of hardship, and tasted a measure of its bitterness. It never grows old or familiar. In every place, it has its unique expression with the same results…people living far short of what is fair, just and right. I am involved in a work and way of life that seeks to change that.

Earlier in the day, I had listened attentively to a 16 year old young man enthusiastically share the love of God in the good news of Christ. It has changed his life! When I took this picture I was walking a path that would lead me to four teens hidden in the hills, getting drunk. After, I sat with four young adults being asked to do what was completely counter-cultural and leave our “home” to make room for younger children and I could see the pain burrowing deep into their beings. Our own work was itself, enigmatic. What was meant to help and had in so many ways, was also hurting and the wounds were deep.

I found my thoughts returning again and again to the image of these trees and the view that had captured my attention enough to cause me to pull out my camera. As I stood beneath them and looked up, what was going on around me was put into perspective. We live in a world of beauty and harshness, of life-filled excitement and destructive excess, of helping and hurting. What is fair and just and right is within our reach but not so easily grasped. It is above us, bidding us to be attentive but also reminding us we play a small part that will never fully satisfy. What we can do will help but often, if not always, at a price.

We must stand tall and stretch to reach high lest we get swallowed up by what brings us low. And we must be open to the moments we are given to embrace the beauty that is all around us, pointing upward to the One who gave it, and Who has all that is around us well in hand.