Let's Just Get Out Of The Way...

Just as we rolled past downtown Cincinnati the tone in the van quieted down along with the setting sun.  With close to three hundred miles behind us, Jen, Sandra, Kelly and I settled into the fact that there was no turning back now.  As the traffic thinned out, the only remaining sign of the hill country we were entering was the obvious climbing and descending of the white dotted line and the low hum of shifting gears on the faithful Town & Country.  Another hour under our belt and we’d be setting up camp in the Red River Gorge—the first time ever for two brave souls of the six girls from our first ever Flint City Climbing girl’s club.

Exiting the freeway after seven, southbound hours of music, Crack The Case, and discovering the roots of new-found friendships, the conversation amped back up into commentary on KY HWY 15.  This was not your ordinary back country road.  Oh no, it was lined with conifers and maples, patches of exposed rock revealing the fact that we were not in flat, southern Michigan anymore.  A homemade sign reading, “Firewood $5 Honk for Service” reminded us that we were also no longer in the same culture we were accustomed to either.  This area of Appalachia boasts the poorest community in all of its mountainous region—Beattyville.  The name says it all if you let it roll off your tongue with a deep accent.  Black rubber marked every curve for two miles of Hwy 15, where the annual drift race fills the valley with the roar of street racing cars, dipping into Slade from wealthier areas.  Finally, we backed the van into a site prearranged for us by a good friend, to secure a spot amongst the throng of campers who come out for the fall colors.

First time camping ever and we begin this journey in the blackness of a Kentucky state park.  With headlamps on, the girls learned how to set up their tent, completing the fly to keep any unwanted dew from making their first night of sleep on the ground anything short of sound.  During a slight lull as I ran back to the van for more gear Jen took a moment with the girls to simply point out a commonality to us—our night sky.  Our campsite had a small clearing in the trees where there was a window between the leafy canopy sixty-feet overhead.  All three standing in the center of the site, necks cranked til their heads came ungodly close to their spines, they observed the cosmos.  “This is nothing like Flint, I’ve only ever seen like three stars before,” Sandra said.  Just then, a huge shooting star blasted across their small viewing port, fizzling out as fast as it grew into a streak of light. 

“Oh my gosh!  Did we all just see that?  It usually takes so long to spot a shooting star and all three of us saw that in the first ten seconds in this tiny little patch of sky!”  Jen reported.

I don’t particularly believe in fate, or crazy coincidences, if that’s something one can believe in or not I can’t even say.  What I do believe is that there is one supreme being, YHVH, the God of the Hebrews that we read about in the Bible and He created this universe in which we reside.  Our lives are pretty tiny compared to His majestic power and His keen ability to alter anything He pleases.  The Bible also makes it clear that He desires to see His creation recognize their maker before they meet Him face to face.  Flint City Climbing isn’t evangelistic, but it is pretty cool that for these girl’s first-time camping in Kentucky, their first time observing a clearer night sky than they’ve ever seen and they see a shooting star in that tiny viewing window between the trees.  Did God orchestrate that moment just for them?  Perhaps.  I think that He did, and it reminded Jen and I that God so often speaks for Himself if we let Him.  God doesn’t always need our voices to glorify Him, He just wants us to show Him to others in whatever way we can, and in this case, it was Jen stepping completely out of view, so that they could see Him the way He wanted to be seen.  When Jen shared that moment with me, I took rest in the fact that God loves us and wants us to know it.  I have sons of my own and I want them to know that I love them.  I reinforce my love by showing them in the little things—taking time to play with them, listen to their imaginations come to life, and wow them with a some simple card-trick magic.  I think that God takes great pleasure in doing a little magic of His own to wow us… let’s step out of the way and allow Him to be God—He’s pretty good at it!

-Matt