The bighorn sheep in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park will often allow visitors to approach them from below and take close-up photos. But don't try to get above them or the entire herd will run away. The bighorns' escape route from predators is always upward. On level ground a bobcat or cougar can easily overtake the wild sheep, but scrambling up a boulder-strewn slope, the bighorns will get away every time.

Years ago I heard a speaker say, "No matter what danger you face from trouble or temptation, don't let it get between you and God." As Christians, our escape route is always upward toward the Lord, never downward into sin or self-pity.

The psalmist's words remind us how to keep difficulty on the downhill side: "My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up" (Psalm 5:3). Then, in a beautiful word picture, David described how God answered his prayer for help: "He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places" (18:33).

The example of the bighorns and the words of the psalmist teach us to keep spiritual danger on the downhill side, with a wide-open upward path between ourselves and God.    — David C. McCasland