September 17, 2013
I sit in the Boise airport alone. Having traveled thousands of miles to the
West to go hiking with my older brother was no mistake, and was quite
enjoyable. We have a hundred pictures,
and maybe more of the great mountain ranges we walked through, the lovely pine
trees we passed, and even the scarred lands previously burned. These are the very creation of the God I
worship. Mountains stand as they were
placed by Him so many years ago. One
mountain has a red top, others are rocky with crags, and some are covered in
pines with smooth slopes. We walked
thirty miles in two days. Up down and
all around. We tented next to a
beautiful lake which reflected the mountains around with astonishing clarity
the next morning. You couldn’t recreate
this if you tired. Hours and hours from
civilization- or it would certainly seem- trout bite the lures we cast in the
water. We casted most of them back from
whence they came. God keeps those trout
there 8,100 feet above sea level so that one day someone might venture a lure
into the lake to see what God might do.
Meals are provided, and God is worshipped alone for such a grand scale,
and one yet so small that many people don’t know its there, or are focused on
the millions of other distractions in life.
In all of this, I was in awe of my masterful designer, and
yet something was missing. I wouldn’t
have said this flying from home to Boise.
Landing in Minneapolis on the way, nothing was different. Looking forward to seeing my brother and his
wife and children along with the spectacular views God might be so inclined to
show me was a great anticipation. What
happened?
I realized I was alone.
My brother was there with me the entire time. We fished halfway around the lake by walking
the banks. We took picture upon pictures,
and packed everything in and everything out.
We were responsible. We cleaned
up after another party that wasn’t as clean. We walked like soldiers to
accomplish what our minds had set out to do.
So how was I alone?
A single man cannot write what I write. I was single once. I’ve been different for years now, and in 7
years, I’ll have lived half my life single, and the other half with another. This person who has walked a married life
with me has always been by my side.
Before we were married she was by my side. This missing person was noticed in my mind
immediately upon walking the mountains.
She is my soulmate, my friend, and one that God himself chose for me. I wouldn’t ask for another. She fills my voids, and polishes my
unseemliness. I am no diamond in the
rough. I am the rough, and she makes me
look like a diamond. She is selfless,
she is warm. She is kind, and never judgmental. She is concerned with truth, and raises our
children in the nuture and admonition of the LORD. Alone in the mountains and seeing the grand
display of God himself was dimished by the lack of my wife. In a strange way, and yet very logical, she
surpasses the beauty of the rocky cragged-top mountain, the red mountain, the
pristine water of a lake so far above sea level most the world will never see
it. Yet, I see my wife every day, and
she seems ordinary because she has always been there. But Oh!, what God really intended for me to see
wasn’t the hills he made. It wasn’t the
trout that is fed by God himself. It
wasn’t the time spent with my brother.
All things are made by Him, and are great, but when God created the
world as we see it here-and perhaps with more beauty than we see- he then made
Adam. And God said it wasn’t good that
man was alone. I think I know how Adam
felt. When he saw Eve for the first
time, he never wanted to not see Eve again.
My Sarah is that way.
He made the mountains and made the trees, and He made Sarah
to set me free. Free from the trappings
of the world. Free to see what His might
truly is by giving me a lovely woman just like he did for the first man.
Oh, how I pale compared to the mountains and streams! How far I fall next to my Sarah. If a mountain surpasses my beauty, how much
more does my wife? Yet, she stays with me,
as God’s plan has always been. I have
been given much by the King, and I have a response for Him.
You gave me a woman who heals my wounds. She encourages me
when I am down. She has sought you when
I was complacent. She has delivered five children because it was your design, and
never complained. She trusted You while
our son was in danger. She disagrees
with me. She has a careful eye to things
that I am oblivious to, and I need that, but you knew it, and made her that
way. She teaches our children to love
you, and shows them how to train their mind.
She gives her time to me, and asks for nothing back. She is orderly, clean, and composed. She avoids things she should avoid. She lets me be wrong, and doesn’t strike
back. She is better than I, and You made
her that way.
Oh, King of my heart, I thank you today for making a
beautiful woman this way. You designed
her and fashioned her spirit and heart to love a man and her children from the
start. You have kept her safe, and her
children too, I can only ask one thing of You.
Keep her safe and better than me today and never let her walk away for
She is the guiding force of my life, next to You, my Sarah, my wife.
