Daily Word of Grace # 142 (September 30, 2020)
Many years ago when I was a youth minister I led a group of high school students on an ascent of Pike’s Peak near Colorado Springs. Pike’s Peak is one of the more famous “fourteener’s” (mountains with a summit of at least fourteen thousand feet) in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It was a magnificent breathtakingly beautiful July day. But as we were climbing above tree line a sudden hail storm seemed to come out of nowhere, and since we were above tree line, there were no trees under which to take cover. We held our backpacks above our heads, the hailstones bouncing off of them and finally found a huge rock under which we took shelter for the duration of the hail storm. We were SO thankful for that rock. Along these lines the psalmist effusively writes, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:2-3). No matter how much we may be caught off guard by metaphorical hailstorms in our lives, God remains our Rock in Whom to take refuge. And when it comes to the cross, where Jesus saved and delivered us from sin and death, we are never above tree line.
Love and Prayers,
Dave