Mark 1:9-13 Highs and Lows–Peaks and Valleys
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.’ The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him” (RSV).
If we want to discuss the journey between the highs and the lows, the peaks and the valleys, there is no better example than that of Jesus described in Mark 1:9-13. He goes from “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased” to “And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.” From God the Father to Satan, from the highest to the lowest. There was very little transition for the passage also states, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” His time in the wilderness was an extended time, forty days.
In this life we experience journeys between the peaks and valleys in both directions. Sometimes the journey is quick and sharply delineated, but other times the journey is longer with the distinction between the two—peak and valley—not so sharp. Sometimes the journey goes almost unnoticed, as we drift between one to the other. We can easily distinguish between a peak and a valley, but we need to learn when we are on the journey between the two and in which direction we are headed. Satan does his best to cloud the journey, thus deceiving us as to where we are headed. We need to be constant in the reading of His Word and in conversation with our Lord to understand where we stand at any time, and that is important. When we are traveling from lows to highs, we can shorten the journey by our actions and our attitude, and when we are travelling from highs to lows, we can stop the journey before we reach rock bottom.
We do travel between highs and lows, peaks and valleys in this life, but when we are aware of the direction of travel, we can always depend upon our Lord to give us both help and comfort along the journey. It can be said that the peaks are not as high when the valleys are not very low, but with the Lord’s help, we can spend more time on the peaks or on the journey toward the peaks to His glory than we do in the valleys or on the descent toward the valleys. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Help me to be aware of the direction of my journey, and help me to move toward you.