1 Kings 18: 41-45:If all I had was one last breath

I love this song by Casting Crowns. The title is actually "I know you are there". But for some reason, I prefer "If all I had was one last breath"

In the midst of life’s brevity, perhaps we take time to ask ourselves “When was the last time something took your breath away because of the majesty?” Ever watched the movie “The Bucket List”?

At creation, God gave man breath. Then He took away man’s breath with the awesome, beauty, grandeur, majestic, symmetrical volcano shaped mountain called Mount Yotei in Hokkaido. The mountain photo was taken from our breakfast café at Hilton Niseko. For many days we stayed at Niseko in December 2009, we had poor visibility as the snow was so heavy. This was taken only on our last day I think – God was good! He gave us this spectacular view with the sun and the blue sky. It only lasted for a very short while! Cos the snow fall came again. Well, the global weather had gone bersek with reported heavy snowfall in many countries, not just Japan.

The cloud hovering above Yotei’s top was a reminder of how Moses spent his time up with God. His face radiated after he came down from the mountain. None of the people could take the radiance such that Moses had to veil himself. Breathlessness. Trillions of differently-shaped snowflakes. You can’t see such sceneries in Singapore, it had to be in Sapporo. Can we not marvel at God’s wonder creation?

This mountain also reminded me of Elijah at Mount Carmel. In my earlier posts, we saw fire came down. But at the end of 1 Kings 18 - this man of faith prayed for rain. He heard the sound of rain. He prayed. And the power of the LORD came upon him. A heavy rain came at last after 3 years of drought in this land. I have never seen a snow blizzard (rain in solidified flake form that was not falling vertically downwards but HORIZONTAL! )in my life except this first time in Hokkaido. It was so scary that we decided to stay indoors! And can you imagine Elijah running ahead of Ahab even though the latter had a head start in his chariot? Picture this : Elijah on foot - ran and overtook Ahab in his chariot! That's exceptional horse power without any steriods! Funny!

Kind of reminded me of the true story of the 2 men who ran in the Olympics in the Chariots of Fire. Heart was solidly steadfast in God and God honoured them in the race. What a run!

In the next chapter in 1 Kings 19, we shall see Elijah running out of breath for his life.

How about you? If all you had was just one last breath? What would you do? The song goes "If all I had was one last breath, I'd spend it just to sing Your praise, Just to say Your name...." How about you?