Following Tracks

How lucky can one transplanted snow-hungry Northerner get? Two straight days of cross-country skiing on the unplowed roads of Charlotte, NC! With a second day of several hours of snow, and a nice fast layer of ice under the fresh snow, conditions were as good as it gets. I strapped on my cross country skis and headed back out to the golf course along the snowy road and sidewalks.

Day 2 wasn't quite as easy as Day 1 of cross-country skiing. I was sore from Day 1, but didn't realize how sore until I was out skiing. Ouch. I didn't even know I had muscles there....However, I knew I would not be blessed with a Day 3. In all likelihood the snow would be melting by the late afternoon. So I ignored the aching muscles, and the definite escalating fatigue. I would not miss this rare and blessed gift from heaven.

I knew when I reached the golf course I was at least half way tired, and thus should turn back. However, I just couldn't. I did a lap around the golf course. In the process, I got a little lost and a little snow blind. (Stupid not to have worn sunglasses or goggles...) Who knew how different the landscape would look under a foot of snow? I found  snowmobile tracks to follow for a portion of the journey. It was getting really tiring breaking a path in the deep snow, so the snowmobile tracks were much appreciated.

I was getting mighty tired, and couldn't figure out the route back to the main drag.  I skiied to the top of a green (which was now white...), with a flag sticking up out of the snow that was at a high point on the course. From there, with the higher vantage point, the whole landscape became more clear and I knew where I was.  I could see the break in the bushes where I had come onto the field. And there were my tracks! Not only was I happy to have found the evidence of where I had entered, but I could now ski home in the tracks I had made. In deep snow, that is much less fatiguing than breaking a new path.

My reading in Psalms that morning had been about invisible tracks. Despite the storms that rage around us at times, and the unclear paths obscured by the tempest, there is still a Way and we are still being guided. God has been guiding us from the moment we enter life, till the moment He calls us home. However, the psalmist tells us that at times, God's footprints leading us are unseen. This would be particularly frightening in the storms of life, and that is often when we can't see where He is directing us as clearly as we should. What a picture of faith that is!  God is leading us, but we feel we are walking blind on an uncertain path. We walk by faith, not by sight. It is always best to find the highest place closest to Him that we can when we feel lost. Sometimes, it makes the way more clear to us.  Nonetheless, whether we see them or not, God's footprints are there, and if  we walk by faith on the path He has set before us, we will make it Home.

I followed my tracks all the way back into my neighborhood. Finally, very weary, I stumbled onto my front porch. I made it. I wasn't certain at times that I would.
"You can melt now," I told the lovely snow.

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Psalm 77: 16-19
16 When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
indeed, the deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies gave forth thunder;
your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
 your lightnings lighted up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.