Pike’s Peak
We didn’t take many vacations, therefore I will never forget this trip. It must have been 1938 or 1939. My parents decided to drive to Colorado in our four door Ford car. It was a long trip from western Oklahoma, or it seemed so, to me.
My two younger brothers and I bounced back and forth in the back seat, sans seat belts on the trip, until we came in sight of this huge mountain.
I looked at the back of Dad’s head as he drove steadily toward the huge mountain. (Somehow everything appears to be larger when you are only 9 years old.) I watched Dad’s hands on the steering wheel, guiding us ever higher and higher up the mountain. Dad told us that the air would be thinner as we neared the top. I breathed in the warm air, but it didn’t seem thinner to me. I wondered that ‘thin air’ looked like and if it breathed in differently.
As he guided the car around the curves, from my seat by the window I watched the side of the road fall away to a deep valley. I saw the rocks and the trees below us. My heart quivered with fear in sync with the vibrations of the car as it brought us to new heights ever nearer to our destination — the pinnacle of Pike’s Peak, 14111 feet – seemed to touch Heaven.
The trip seemed endless. I closed my eyes at times when the sight of the threatening crevices overwhelmed me. Mother reassured me. We will soon arrive and we were safe. A quick look at Dad, showed me his confidence and exhilaration. I knew I could trust him. I relaxed for a time, but another look out the window brought back the tentacles of fear that clutched at my heart.
Suddenly the car’s motor no longer worked as hard, we had arrived. Dad parked the car and we tumbled out and looked around. Such a beautiful vista – we were at the top! The song, “On a clear day I can see forever…” had not been written yet but I could hear heart-music.
We could see so far – and we studied the horizon. “Mom, let’s build a house and live here forever!” I had never felt this way before.
She laughed and said, “It is beautiful up here, isn’t it? It was worth the drive to see God’s beauty!”
Now as I remember that trip, knowing there are many other mountains on this earth that are higher, but I still remember the beauty, the peace and the joy on top of that mountain.
Again I am scaling heights in my life with trepidation and fear at times. My Heavenly Father guides me. I look to Him for direction, for security, on my way to the Heavenly Pinnacle, I trust Him. He is my confidence.
All I need to do, is open His Word for direction, for comfort, for understanding of who He is and WHY I love Him.
Psalm 139 holds the reassuring words:
- He knows me.
- He knows my life.
- He knows what I am thinking.
- No matter where I am, He is there.
- He made me and knew me before I was born and still in Mother’s womb.
- His words and his thoughts are vast…no matter how many times I read your Word, there is always more to learn.
David finished this beautiful Psalm with the words:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
We were not created for this world. We were created for eternity. We were created for a purpose by the Great Creator… to serve Him. As we journey through this world with our Lord, we find that the Holy Spirit gives us the characteristics that enable us to be Christlike.
What are those characteristics? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 ends with – Against such there is no law.
These nine characteristics counteract hate, unhappiness, distress, restless agitation, harshness, corruptness, disloyalty, harshness and self-indulgence, the anti-thesis of what the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ will give us.
Philippians 2:1-2
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.