Covering the Hard Way

Journal 2006 06 28
Covering the Hard Way

“…the whole of the rout of this day was over deep snows.    we find the traveling on the snow not worse than without it, as the easy passage it gives us over rocks and fallen timber fully compensate for the inconvenience of sliping, certain it is that we travel considerably faster on the snow than without it.” 

Captain Lewis records what all the men observed today. Specifically that it was better to travel on top of seven feet of crusted over snow than crawl over the trees that littered their path like giant pick-up sticks last September.

The men were cold, hungry and near starvation as they traversed this area last fall. The blown down trees were like hurdles to a sprinter. Even “such hardy travelers as we have become” remembered the difficult traverse and found the slippery, steep path through the snow preferable to the “fair weather” path of last fall.

This choice of hardships is one we face daily also. But before we get there the men find their first signs of elk and send off two hunters to pursue meat. They will dine on a soup made from roots they obtained from the Indians and speak favorably of it. They prefer meat. I’m sure the memory of being relegated to eating their horses and starvation nine months earlier has circulated to the forefront of their memories.

The horses are hungry and the expedition stops for the night thirteen miles into the day’s journey because of the quantity and quality of grass found on the south slope of an Idaho mountain. The horses are refreshed with food and rest.

A thick blanket of winter’s work covers the obstacles that attempt to trip up and discourage these hard-working young men and anyone attempting to gain victory over these “terrible” mountains. We have obstacles that stand in opposition to our daily advance to something greater and just over the horizon. Which mode of travel do we prefer? Do we even have a choice?

In our hearts, where our spirits reside, we can choose. Do we choose to the way of hardness, hewn from bitterness and disappointment, leaving stones that we continue to stumble over? Or do we make that simplest of heart choices and allow our “hearts of stone” to be covered over by work performed in our absence? In the winter of the Spirit of God Jesus shed his blood to cover our sins and deliver a new way of living to us. Do we see it? Or are we afraid of it? Better for the horse’s hoofs to sink two to three inches into the snow and our moccasins to slip rather than fight the battle of the blow-downs. But the “new way,” the better way doesn’t look like it at first.

We are one week into summer. A new season. The snow of the work of winter provided easy travel to our tough travelers. It is the same for us today. In His winter He made a path while we were unaware of our need of help. His work of winter was shedding His blood to cover the hardness of our sin. Do you see it? Will you walk on it at His leading? Join me. We may still find the going rugged and we may slip. Compared to the other choices, we see that the beauty of His designs and provisions far exceed our own. Amazing! Proceed on.