God’s Mailbox (Rocky Mountain Adventure, Part I)

One of the key challenges in any Peterson family adventure is escaping the city.  Counterfeit urgencies, illness  and a hundred other obstacles seem to threaten our every attempt to escape the bustle of Atlanta.  Unwanted obligations cling to our legs and cry like spoiled children as we make our way out the door.  I’ve named this collection of distractions “The Noise.”  Our recent trip to Colorado was no exception.  But we pressed on, and made our escape last Thursday.

The Noise continued as we navigated the expressways, parking lots, security lines and general hubbub of the busiest airport in the world.  It waned a bit as our plane ascended and headed west.  The Noise threatened a bit as we went through the inexplicably lengthy process of renting a van.  But once we arrived at our destination in Estes Park, Colorado, The Noise had diminished completely.

Nothing captures my imagination so much as the mountains, and there are no mountains quite like the Rockies.  The YMCA of the Rockies was established in 1910, some five years before Rocky Mountain National Park was created. It boasts rustic lodges, sits at 8,010 feet, provides visitors a 360 degree panorama of extraordinarily majestic mountains, and lies adjacent to the famous national park.  We are members of the local YMCA, which is essentially nothing more than an L.A. Fitness for families, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this YMCA seems more dedicated than most Y facilities to its Christian mission.

On our first morning at the camp, we were presented with a wealth of opportunities.  The Y offers all sorts of classes, athletic venues, a museum, a crafts facility, an indoor pool, horseback riding and a dozen other options.  So, after a hearty breakfast, we split up.  Toria walked the two younger kids around the Y, and I took the older ones for an archery class.

Never missing an opportunity to impress my kids or anyone else watching me, I took up a bow and drilled the target a few times.  I hadn’t shot a bow in years, but I spent many 8th grade afternoons in my backyard firing a bow into a bales of straw in our backyard.  I was pleased that my skills hadn’t left me altogether.  My kids were impressed, but at some point will realize that their Dad had nothing better to do during junior high than shoot a bow and arrow in the backyard by himself.

After our classes, we joined my parents for lunch and decided to take a hike.  After a couple of wrong turns, we ended up making the climb to Bible Point.  Among other things, Bible Point is the burial place of Edwin Brandt.  Brandt died tragically at 18 years of age in 1918, and had so loved the spot that his father requested that he be buried there.  His parents installed a mailbox next to his grave where they placed a Bible and a register for hikers.  And so the place earned its name.

The hike was a relatively short, but steep ascent up to 8,650 feet, and my Mom and youngest daughter stopped mid-way up the climb.  The rest of us were rewarded with stunning views on a beautiful day.

King David wrote, “If I go up to the heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”  (Psalm 139:8, 9)  So I know that God hears prayers uttered from from my car or my office as easily as those issued on the mountain, and yet The Noise seems to subside when I’m above the racket of the world, and I feel more capable of hearing Him.

I thought of the prayers that Edwin Brandt likely lifted up from those very rocks nearly 100 years ago, and the cries of a father burying his son at the same spot.  Edwin died in a car accident on his way to his brother’s wedding.  I can only imagine the confusion, grief and anger of the surviving father of this spiritually precocious son.  And yet, his father thought to put a mailbox and Bible at his son’s grave.  His confusion, anger and grief didn’t morph into disbelief.  I don’t know the whole story, only that in God’s economy the whole episode had a purpose that escapes our understanding.

I think much disillusionment with God stems from the fact that prayer is an ineffective tool for manipulating God.  People pray for what they want, don’t get it, and assume that God either doesn’t exist or doesn’t care.  Much to our surprise, prayer just isn’t a way to get what we want.  It is, however, an exceptional tool for experiencing God. 

As I breathed the rare air at the site and watched my father and my sons, my wife and my daughter, I became acutely aware that I have been richly and wonderfully blessed, and that it is God who has blessed me, not just with opportunities like going to the mountains, and not just with a beautiful family, but with a knowledge of Him.  So many of us think of eternal life (if we think of it at all) as something that happens after what happens here.  Christ describes it differently, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God , and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  (John 17:3).  Eternal life is now.  And all that is true seems truer to me from a place like Bible Point.