Hiking to Heaven

So....we leave for Alaska in the morning, but I wanted to share with you something I have observed these last few weeks. I have noticed something wonderful in my family as we prepare to go on our 4th annual summer backpacking adventure. Here it is:

Going on a backpacking trip is a LOT of work--and this year that work is compounded by the fact that we are flying to our destination. But because we all love, love, love to go hiking, the work doesn't seem burdensome at all. In fact, it seems exciting and fun! I don't think that I have heard one complaint from any of the family members when I asked them to plan a menu...or dehydrate pounds and pounds of fruit, vegetables, or meat...or set out the tents and check for holes...or find the trowel (for you-know-what)--hey you either bury it or pack it out--which would you choose?...or check the water filter to make sure it filters. (OK--well, maybe I complained a little when I bought the wrong batteries for the GPS--give me a break--I was exhausted from my 3rd trip to Target). We so love the goal--hiking together in God's beautiful creation--that the way to get there seems not wearisome, but enjoyable!

Shouldn't we all be more like this when we think about preparing ourselves for our real and permanent home--Heaven? Shouldn't our infatuation with the dream--the reality of someday meeting Him--OUR FATHER-- make us giddy with excitement and anticipation? All of this training ourselves to think rightly and lining our lives up with the Word--all of this denying ourselves and looking to Him--shouldn't this give us just a little shiver of longing when we realize what all of our "preparation" is for? Sure it is hard and tiring and sometimes you just want to stop and be done cause it seems like you will never be fully ready, but if you stick with it and you keep on "carrying your pack", you WILL see your mountaintop...your goal... your JESUS!

The good stuff is yet to come, so keep on keepin' on. Don't let the many tasks in front of you get you down. Your final goal is within reach. Look UP!

"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

John 14:2-4