By Guest Writer
“What is hiking?” —Joy (my middle daughter, seven)
“Going to a place where you’re going for a long time where you get hot walking.” —Dewy (my youngest daughter, five)
I have had that conversation saved in a phone note for the past five years. So adorable. So hilarious, listening to my children explain life to each other. But my then-five-year-old wasn’t trying to be funny. She was experiencing hiking for the first time as a three-foot human, who felt way more of the discomfort and strain of hiking and way less of the “oh, look at the beautiful rocks and sky” of it all. When you’re little and weak and the sun is scorching and you could really use a snack and a Capri Sun, hiking feels a lot more like “going to a place where you’re going for a long time where you get hot walking” than a scenic exercise experience.
Do you ever feel like that? I do. We, God’s little children, can so easily walk through this life focused on our weaknesses, on our discomforts, on the so-hot sun and the so-long feeling journey. Like a child on a lengthy, sweaty, boring hike, we might echo the psalmist David, “How long, LORD?” (Psalm 13:1).
In Revelation 6, we read about the worst things in this world: war and death and hunger. And when the fifth seal was opened, we hear the martyrs crying out from under the altar, “Lord…how long…?” (Revelation 6:10).
And then, in Revelation 7, we get a peek at what’s coming soon.
No more hunger. No more thirst. No more scorching heat. God will wipe away every tear—the ones we cried at home, in hospitals, and at grave-sides.
And that’s not just a fingers-crossed hope. Ephesians 1 says we have the Holy Spirit as a seal. We have a real promise from the God who always keeps His Word.
So while we hike, we do it with a Shepherd. And while it is long, He is leading us. Jesus is comforting us and even carrying us during this hard hot walk, to a place of peace and rest and everlasting hope.
Written by Scarlet Hilitibidal
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