About a month before Christmas, I had some time on my hand. I was missing Mom and thinking about the fact that in just a few years, I will have lived without her as long as I lived with her. I decided to record some of the memories/lessons I learned. I share these because they continue to impact my life and maybe they will speak to someone else.
Mom loved the outdoors. She loved horseback riding, sports of almost any kind, gardening, hiking and climbing Gog and Magog (pictured in the header). I don’t remember when Mom first took me climbing Gog and Magog, but I know that, as I got older, this was one of my favorite things to do on the weekend. Mom would take a group of us and we’d take a backpack with sandwiches and have lunch on top. Mom and Aunt Sandy Achenbach would often carry real coffee mugs (as opposed to plastic that wouldn’t break if dropped) along with a thermos of coffee. They’d sit on a ledge about half way up and enjoy their coffee with a view.
One of my favorite memories is a conversation I overheard after mom had led a volunteer missions group from the U.S. up and back down. She was telling one of the volunteers that she loved climbing up and around those big granite rocks because it reminded her of the Rock of our salvation. She jumped around on those rocks like a mountain goat, sure-footed, because she knew the granite was solid and not going anywhere. In the same way, she was sure of her salvation.
I am so grateful God gave me the opportunity to overhear that conversation. I don’t remember the day, the year, or how old I was, but I remember the lesson and it will stay with me forever. “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand.”