The Night Shift at Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue

When a thirteen-year-old Boy Scout named David Ralston wandered off trail in Colorado's San Juan Mountains in 2019, his scoutmaster radioed for help before sundown. By midnight, temperatures had dropped below freezing, and David was huddled beneath a rock overhang, shivering and terrified.

What David didn't know was that a volunteer search-and-rescue team had already fanned out across the ridge above him. Three members kept watch through the bitter night, scanning the terrain with thermal imaging. They never sat down. They never closed their eyes. When David woke at dawn, stiff and disoriented, he looked up the slope and saw a woman in an orange vest waving at him. She'd been watching over him for hours — he just hadn't known it.

Psalm 121 was written for travelers on dangerous roads, pilgrims climbing toward Jerusalem through bandit-plagued hills. The psalmist lifts his eyes to those mountains and asks the question every frightened heart asks: Where does my help come from? The answer rings back across three thousand years — from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He who watches over you will not slumber. Not for one moment of the long, cold night.

You may feel alone on the mountain. You may not see the rescue team. But the Almighty has never taken His eyes off you — not once, not ever.