I was involved in a premarital counseling
session tonight, and I found myself discussing the height and power of Mount
Everest.
You may know from
an earlier devotion that I’m “taken up” with mountain climbing… from a
distance. I guess you might call me “an arm chair mountaineer.”
The premarital
counseling couple had experienced a bit of, what I refer to as verbal
contention, and they were determined to find some resolution.
Well, I began to
describe the mountain. It’s
fiercesome to behold, even from a distance. The great mountain towers 29,035
feet in height, and one of six climbers who attempt the peak, die trying.
You may remember
an old adage I used in that previous writing. Famous climbers die on the
mountain. Great climbers climb to the top, come down again, and die of old age.
And this is what
I tried to explain to these young lovers.
Everest can be
cruel. Winds top 100 miles per hour. Temperatures may drop to 60 degrees below
zero, with wind chills so much colder yet. Hundreds have died in their quest to
conquer the mountain. Bodies are left where they fall. (Too much effort to
bring them down.) If you die, and you’re
lucky, they’ll pile a few rocks on top of you. The air is so thin at the
top that very few manage to climb Everest unaided. The vast majority of people
use supplemental oxygen.
Marriage can be a
lot like Mount Everest. If you’re not climbing together, if you’re not working
as a team, you’re likely to fail. We have only to look at the bodies, lying all
around, to understand the cruelty of the mountain. It can be extraordinarily
cold there. All marriages experience such an environment, at one time or
another.
Jesus often
resorted to mountains. He knew both the solace and the fellowship of
mountaintops. For we read in the Book of John that “He departed again to the
mountain by Himself, alone.” (6:15, KJV) But He was never really alone, for His Father was waiting for Him there.
Moses knew that
same experience. For we know that He met God on the mountain. Wonder of
wonders, Moses had been invited there. For His Lord entreated him, “Come up to
Me on the mountain…(Exodus 24:12, KJV)
Mountains need not be
cold, lonely places. Granted, the climb is perilous, but there’s nothing like
the view from the top. And God is there.
I hope the young
couples I counsel become great climbers, before they have the opportunity to be famous ones.
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