A Beam of Light

We were up on the top of a peak after a hot, long day of climbing up to this campsite to stay for the night. Tents were up, fire made, and the leaders (professional guides) were about to start making dinner. I was feeling a need to be “alone” after a long day with the group of twenty women. I went to an outcropping a few yards from the main campsite. There were other people there for a while, but eventually they left to set out sleeping bags, get blisters treated, or help with dinner. As I sat there looking out toward the west, I watched the sky, way out in the distance, grow dark starting with some high cumulus clouds. Those clouds began to drop and they were turning gray and then black. I thought, “We’re going to get wet” as the rain, still out in the distance, began to fall. I could see the gray streaks stretching from the clouds to the ground. Then I saw a lightening flash and another. This, even from my limited knowledge of weather, was not good.

I went back to camp and quietly asked one of the guides if I could talk to her alone. I told her what I’d been watching and she hurried over to my little outcropping to take a look. It only took a few seconds before she was calling everyone together around the fire. She explained that we had to get off this peak as soon as possible or someone was likely to get struck by lightening. We were the highest points on that rocky peak. The nighttime dark was already beginning but everyone had to pack up tents, sleeping bags, the cooking stuff, and several worked at putting out the fire. After about fifteen to twenty minutes we were lined up with a guide in front and a guide in back ready to descend the peak. It had been hard enough climbing the peak during the late afternoon and the “trail” was often hard for the guides to find in this rarely used section of the park. We were now tired, in the dark, and many of the women were almost paralyzed by their fear. Things only got worse when the guides stopped us, huddled off to the side, then told us they were lost.

The guides got us together in a group to pray for the wisdom they needed to get us to a place where we could safely rest. They had a plan, of course, being the professionals that they were. The plan was to use flashlights as a “chain” where a person stood in the spot we were at with the brightest flashlight. Then a small group of volunteers would start to walk out away from the center holding several flashlights. When the group had moved to a point away from the center but could still see the center flashlight, they stopped. One person stayed there holding a second flashlight and the rest of the group continued to move out into the darkness repeating the process. There were two such chains, each with a guide out front. They knew what they were looking for and after twenty minutes or so, the flashlights on “my” chain starting blinking on and off – the signal to return to the center. The other chain had found the path the guides were looking for.

So, those flashlights were, literally, throwing beams of light on our dark path. This event really happened, but I have not thought about it for a long time. But, I recently read Psalm 119:105: “By Your Words I can see where I’m going; They throw a beam of light on my dark path.” (from the Message) God provides what we need to move, to be safe in the midst of this dark, scary, and upsetting world. If we stray away, off the path we can look for the beams of light and follow them back to God.