When the Mountain Bloomed Again

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, flattening 230 square miles of old-growth forest in minutes. The blast zone looked like the surface of the moon — grey, silent, lifeless. Scientists predicted the landscape would remain barren for decades, perhaps centuries.

They were wrong.

Ecologist Charlie Crisafulli arrived that first summer and has returned every year since, documenting what he calls one of the most remarkable ecological recoveries ever observed. Within months, prairie lupine pushed through the ash. Pocket gophers, safe underground during the eruption, churned nutrient-rich soil to the surface. Elk wandered back. Frogs colonized ponds that formed in the blast craters. Today, that moonscape is a thriving young forest.

What stunned the scientists most was this: the recovery didn't follow any textbook pattern. Life found its own unexpected pathways back.

The God who spoke the first creation into existence is the same God who brings life from devastation. Isaiah knew this: "I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:19).

You may look at some part of your life and see nothing but ash. But El Shaddai, the Almighty, is already at work beneath the surface, using pathways you never expected, bringing a restoration you cannot yet see.