Heavenly Hiking

A great summer morning, good friends and a beautiful mountain to hike—it just doesn’t get any better than this!

While walking along the path to Shrine Pass God showed me how our lives often parallel the hike I was on. Since I had not been on this trail before, I started out with excitement and curiosity. Our lives are a lot like this, aren’t they? We begin our journey with great expectation about how wonderful it is going to be—free from hardship and hurts, but we quickly find out that things might not be just as we think they should be along the way.

As I walked the path, there was beauty all around, but there were other things that could come in and steal the moment from me. There were gnarly dead trees that had been damaged by the wind, weather or fire and were really no longer good for anything. Some people end up like these stumps and logs. They allow the junk of the world to come in and kill and destroy the very life within and then become hardened and dry, not useful to anyone or for anything.

Since there had been an early morning rainstorm, we passed mud puddles along the way. They seemed to represent the dirty parts of our life when we have a choice of whether or not we will step deep into the muck or whether we will choose to step carefully around the mass of water and try to protect ourselves from the messy situations we are facing.

Then along came the exposed roots that were across the path. If you were on the look out for them, you could easily maneuver through them, but if you didn’t watch your step, the roots could easily trip you and cause you to land on your hands and knees causing pain and soreness. There are roots in our life that we need to be aware of like the roots of bitterness, depression or despair. If we are careful to beware of them, our path is much more enjoyable.

We also found that there were choices to be made on which direction to go. Some of them might have been the longer route or the more scenic one or even the most strenuous, so while some of the choices we make are for specific reasons sometimes we just happen to take the path that leads to a very unexpected surprise. This occurred on our recent expedition when we discovered a hidden path that led us to the most glorious field of wildflowers at their peak, where there were flowers of every color spread out as a carpet of beauty placed as our reward for getting off the normal path and taking a bit of a detour. In our lives we too have diversions that end up turning out to be something really special, like the Divine Appointments God places in our path. When we choose to play it safe and stay on the trails that everyone else is taking, we might miss the best things that God has planned for us.

Rocks were also situated along our way. Some were tiny pebbles, hardly noticeable while others were quite large, almost blocking the path. In certain places the rocks served to help us climb the steep incline while others had to be maneuvered with care. The rocks reminded me that we sometimes need God to be our resting place to help us while at other times although we don’t always notice Him, He is still there just waiting to be recognized and acknowledged.

And then we encountered the rain, just a light cooling mist. We could have let it ruin our wonderful morning, but instead we chose to be blessed by it, allowing it to permeate our dry skin with nourishment. God wants to give sustenance to our bodies and our souls with good things. These might seem at the time to be negatives, but we need to stop complaining and trust that He is in control and that He desires to give us excellent gifts even when the circumstances may seem to be challenging.

Upon reaching the summit we felt like we were on top of the world and then came the thunder, warning us not to linger but to hastily begin the descent. In life, as on the hike, we often cannot stay on the mountaintop for long before we descend into a valley of problems, but the important thing for us to realize is that we do not have to face the troubles alone. God is with us and will carry us through them.

My hike to Shrine Pass was heavenly, but my daily walk with the Lord has Heaven as my ultimate destination. There are the similarities in the journeys, but one thing is for certain—my mountainous hike was only for a morning but my heavenly home will last forever. Praise God!

2 Timothy 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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