Array of Sonshine

John 16:32

Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

There were 10 of us ladies that decided to take on this challenge of the hike down and back out of the GC. We were from all different walks of life and from different parts of the USA. Our ages ranged from 32-62. One of the experienced hikers (who had already gone down 4 times) took it upon herself to always be in the last position of our group. She had a kind, gentle voice that helped encourage anyone struggling to keep up. She waited when someone wanted to take extra time capturing photos with their camera, or if someone got hurt, she helped to bandage them up. I guess you could say she was like our overseer. A lady that was very self sacrificing and cheerful in her duty.

This reminded me so much of our pastors in the Church of God. Gentle leaders, speaking truth and an encouraging word. Always there for the hurt and the weary. I took much comfort in the fact that I would never be left behind.

At times, however, I was alone on the trail, but my fellow hikers were never far. I could usually see them or hear them. I also liked the fact that I was able to hike with different ones from our group along the way. We shared burdens, tears and laughter.

At the beginning of our journey, I was excited to think that I would be able to spend more time with my BFF from Arizona while we hiked together. But as we started I discovered that I was never with the same person continuously. My friend had a total different mindset than I did about the hike. Her mindset was to keep moving, never resting until we came to a designated stopping point. I, on the other hand, wanted to look ahead at little destinations, stop, take a breather and take in the view from new positions. Because of this, we rarely hiked together. For the important parts, she was purposely by my side. When I fell in the mud, she helped pick me up and at the end when we were close to the summit, she waited so we could go out together! Friends. Through bad times and good. Helping me although not always with me.

We all have our own spiritual walk. The Word tells us in Phil 2:12 that we must work out our own salvation. We will all have our own struggles to finish our eternal goal – heaven. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some want to keep walking, some want to walk rest walk. But we all have the same goal – to finish.

And that we did…all in our own way.

Galatians 6:4

But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.