December 1st, 2018, I drove out of Philadelphia, having been sent off with love by a few of my wonderful friends. I was headed for the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. Despite all the uncertainty that lay ahead of me, I felt invigorated and alive; more than I had in a very long time.
I stopped in D.C. and Virginia along the way to catch up with a couple of friends. One of them a woman I had done a summer mission project with 18 years earlier, whom I hadn’t seen or communicated with since that time – until we ran into each other at an event a few months prior.
Every connection in our life is for a reason and in the Body of Christ they last beyond time and space, renewed in perfect and precious moments.
Why the blue ridge range in NC? Well, I knew NC was a significant part of this path from the way it had been brought up in my spirit as I’ve mentioned. When I looked on the map and saw the mountains, I thought they would be a perfect spot to hide away a few days. Where I stopped would be determined by what I found when I got there. A couple of weeks before I left I was given a sign or 3, in an unrelated town, that I was headed in the right direction.
I arrived in Banner Elk, NC around 10pm. It was charming, quaint, lit up with Christmas lights and signs advertising an upcoming ‘Small-town Christmas’ celebration. In the morning I learned of a nearby year-round campground from a kind southern gentleman at the chamber of commerce. I then prepared for my first real stint of roughing it on my own. I spent 3 nights there and on the second day, it snowed. It was beautiful. And don’t worry, I was nice and toasty in my car at night as I had planned for the possibility of cold snowy weather. I picked a more secluded spot, at the top of the hill the campground was built on/around so I felt safe from any accidental visitors. After successfully building a fire two nights in a row – one of them after it had snowed – I felt proud and capable.
I could do this.
After it had snowed, I went for a shprt hike along a snowy trail. Climbing up onto a boulder, set in the side of the hill, I could see down to my car and a bit of the camp ground below; I felt like a watchman, strong and at an advantage. On the way back down, the wind blew gently and pushed some snow from the bare twiggy branches. A small batch the size of a large puffy snowflake was falling toward me and as I watched, it collided into another twig and burst into a thousand bits and fell on me like powder. It brought child like delight to my heart and reminded me again of why I was there.
I had chosen this area because I wanted to begin my journey away from any distractions and spend focused time seeking and listening to the Lord. I hoped to glean some insight into what this thing was all about; why had the Lord set me on the path that seemed so illogical and even foolish?
I didn’t get much in the way of long term answers; at least not what my, ‘I like to know what is coming so I can be as prepared as possible and succeed’ self, wanted. What did come through was a confirmation of how God wanted me to approach this and what His main agenda was: ‘One day at a time’ and ‘Let me show you how to let me love you, so you can learn how to love me deeper’.
The bursting snow. The successful fires and the beauty found in the flames and embers. The boulder in the side of the hill. The stars brilliantly shining above the reaching, bare branches in the winter’s night sky. Being in the mountains (or something resembling them.) And the gps issue on the way to DC that forced me to get off the freeway, where I found a really good quality winter coat at such a good deal I couldn’t pass it up, not knowing I was going to need it in a few days rather than in several weeks.
All of them gifts of love, tailor-made just for me.
It is a difficult thing if you aren’t accustomed to it; letting yourself be loved completely. I’m still getting used to it, but God is the most patient of givers and waits with this incredible anticipation for the giving to be received… the fulfillment of which happens when we begin to return it to Him in ways beyond the typical. And I am happy to get to literally spend forever learning and living it. a
Traveling roads unseen; following the Voice up to the Higher Places...to freedom. 