Our vacation began ominously. As the taxi went higher and higher on the winding roads, the hot sun disappeared, and the mist cloud that engulfed the mountain consumed us, too. The sunshine turned into sprinkles which gradually grew into big rain drops, and then a downpour, as we rode higher to reach the peak of the mountain at the valley's eastern edge. There at the top was the village, Nagarkot, where we were going to stay for a week's vacation. When we arrived at Peaceful Cottage, our hotel, our umbrellas weren't enough to protect us from this heavy deluge of rain.
 
Due to it being off-season, we were able to stay in the roof-top room which had windows in each of the walls of the octagonal room giving us a 360 degree view of the valleys and mountains around us: the Kathmandu Valley to the west, the Himalayas to the north, and the valleys sweeping off towards Mt Everest to the east. But, at first we couldn't see anything! 

Then the rain clouds rolled away, and the beauty began! Morning after morning we watched the clouds lift up from the valley to our east, engulf us on the top of the mountain, often dropping a bit of mist or rain, and spilling over into the valley to our west.

A couple of evenings thunder roared and lightening flashed in the black sky, and then the rain began to pour. Both times that paved the way for the great Himalayan Mountains to be seen the next morning at sunrise, stretching all the way from 100 miles to our west and beyond the 150 miles to our east! 
 
As the dawn's first yellow sunbeams rose up over the Himalayan-silhouetted horizon, the snow-capped Himalayan Mountains made their grand appearance to the sunrise!

As the sun began to rise higher in the sky shining on the snowcapped peaks, they turned from pink, to yellow and then white against the blue sky. It truly was a site to behold!

We thanked God for the grand display of His majesty we were given to enjoy!
 
Later in the morning I read:
For this is what the Lord says, “ He who created the heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it;" He says: "I am the Lord, and there is no other." Isaiah 45: 18 NIV.

In my mind, I pictured the grand beauty I had witnessed earlier that morning. My heart filled with praises, "Our God is the God who created the heavens: He alone is the Lord and there is no other!"

May you be able to see the beauty of God's creation around you, wherever you may be. May His creation lead you to praise to our God, the Creator of the heavens and earth.

Carole Sydnor