Rock of Significance
Sometimes journaling seems like one more thing to do on an already busy day. But it can be interesting to look beyond today and consider that what we write today could be viewed by and serve as an inspiration to others. After all, Jesus encourages us in Mark 5:19 to, "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
My friend recently discovered a journal written by her uncle among her deceased mother’s belongings. Reading his journal entry reminded my friend and her family of God’s goodness, His presence, His grace, and His mercy. When she shared the entry with me, I felt encouraged to document my walk with God. I hope you are encouraged to do the same.
The journal entry is shared below by permission of the family of David C. Sahlin, Tacoma, Washington.
It was the last summer of the last world war. At home we were praying urgently for my two brothers in France. One of them was in battle. Word from him was ominously overdue. To find relaxation, particularly for our anxious parents, we went to the mountain — that peak which Indians for generations have referenced as “The Mountain That Was God.”
At the Camp of the Clouds, near the summer snowline, I was persuaded to join some friends climbing one of the trails, while my parents lingered on gentler slopes overlooking Paradise Valley. Our trail led upward over snowfields interspersed with extensive areas of rocks and stone. When we had stopped for rest, I sauntered in among the rocks for a considerable distance away from the beaten path to find the solitude my soul was yearning for. God was intimately near to me there, as I sat on a boulder and meditated. I remembered that Jesus, too, had communed with the Father alone on a mountain!
Lying on top another rock within easy reach was a smaller stone. Quite involuntarily, my hand lifted the stone and underneath I found a shriveled, weather-stained card. It had dried out again in the summer heat, after soaking in the thaws of spring as each winter’s blanket of snow, thirty feet deep, or more, had melted away. Yet I could read on it, in his own handwriting, my brother’s name and address and a date indicating that he had placed it there two years before. I had not known of his visit to the mountain, nor was it by mere chance that I had come to the one rock of significance to me in all the vastness of millions of stones! I hurried back to show my friends and parents what God had led me to find. The card was sent with a letter to my brother in France, and in due time came his reply telling that he had just emerged, entirely unharmed, from a battle which a majority of his company did not survive.
The home-coming of the boys was a mountain-top event. It had been assured to us that day when God and I communed among the boulders far below the summit!
Sharing this entry seemed appropriate with Memorial Day upon us; a time when we reflect on, thank and honor the members of America’s military services.
And, let us remember to not neglect to thank God for He is good, all the time. After all, you just never know what God will lead you to find! It is my hope that you, too, will experience a mountain top event in your life. And when you do, write it down!