Summer is in full swing in the Rocky Mountains. The color blue is given new meaning when looking at a July sky, cool nights act as a salve taking away the heat of the day, and fresh air contrasts the high ozone levels found in global cities. Indeed, summer at elevation is special.

While Snowmass Village and the Roaring Fork Valley as a whole are quite busy, I’ve discovered there is much peace and solitude to be found fairly easily, especially when one attends to the senses. This certainly has been the case when it comes to what our eyes can see.

Perhaps due lots of moisture, the wildflowers have been uniquely spectacular. Lupine, Skyrockets, Monkey Flowers, Bergamut, Columbine, and Mule’s Ear are just a few examples of what has been blooming with awe inspiring beauty. Like a painter’s palette, astonishing colors are smeared everywhere.

Upon reflection, this summer’s wildflower eruption brings Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel to mind. Jesus said, 28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?” (Matthew 6 – NLT).

Indeed, if God has the capacity to create such magnificence, will God not care for each of us when it is all said and done? Wildflowers and in fact so much of God’s creation stand ready to remind us of this point, if we simply pay attention to what is in front of us. Throughout each season, God uses creation and what we experience through our senses to teach us and invite us to remain centered upon God.

Jesus, following these words, goes on to say in essence, “with this in mind, focus on the present moment, not the past or what might be in the future.”

Wildflowers become potently stunning precisely at the moment we are looking at them in the moment. The fullness of their beauty is realized only when our gaze upon them is what is filling our minds. Thoughts of the future or recollections of the past, quickly diminish our experience of them.

It is as if God through God’s wildflowers is saying to us, “To experience the beauty of wildflowers fully, you must see them as they are in the now. To experience life as I envision for you, stay in the moment knowing the moment is where you will discover me and the true you most completely”

For some, this summer will go on for months. For those of us at elevation, this season is fleeting. But wherever we happen to find ourselves in the weeks ahead, I invite us all to pause and fully engage whatever snippet of God’s creation is right in front of us. There are lessons to be learned and gratitude to be expressed through it all.