CROSSING THE CREEK

How many of you ride trail bikes?  Some young people in this church made awesome times in the “Test of Metal” this summer.  Aren’t the mountain trails around our community just wonderful!  I often feel like bursting into a song to thank God for the tremendous opportunities we have to enjoy fresh air and exercise here in Squamish:  Spectacular views, and such a wide array of flowers, fungi, mosses and other living creatures.  The Squamish Trail map shows over 100 death-defying bike paths, many with names, like “Meet your Maker”.  And perhaps most exciting of all, these trails were built by great friends of our community, volunteers like Ray Peters and Len Goldsmith, folk who have contributed their talents, their lumber, their equipment, their gravel and their money to share this great gift with us.
 Muriel and I knew nothing about these wonderful trails till we moved to Squamish four years ago.  But now we love to go out exploring.  You may have seen me cycle to church sometimes, but I don’t have a mountain bike- I bought my trusty CCM before they had even invented mountain bikes!   But in any case, I would be too chicken to ride down some of those trails.  So I just put on some stout boots, and off I go, with both feet firmly on the ground.  And with June and Ollie and other members of the Tantalus walking group, we find a lot of fun and friendship on those trails, even without bikes.

This week, we tried the “Eight Ball”, trail number 81, threatened by the new golf course.  It runs from Newport Drive up to Pia.  Have you ever tried that one?  Maybe its not steep enough for real bikers!  But it climbs through beautiful woodland alongside Thunderbird Creek.  About half way up the hill, there’s a branch trail that heads off towards Alice Lake.  But of course, Thunderbird Creek is in the way.  A very long, very narrow and very slippery log stretches across the stream, five metres above the water.  I looked down at the rushing stream and the jagged rocks, and I knew there was no way I was going across, even without a bicycle.  But I began to wonder how the bikers managed.  Someone told me the trick was to look at someone on the far side, rather than the water and the rocks below.

One of our Bible stories today is about when Moses was a baby.  After he grew up. he had to lead people on a really difficult trail.  For starters, they had to get across a very muddy estuary, with a huge army of Egyptians roaring after them in armoured cars.  But Moses taught his friends not to look down at the water or back at the soldiers.  If they looked straght ahead, they would be safe.  God was guiding them with a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.  But the Egyptians had no one to guide them over the creeks.  Pretty soon, their armoured cars got stuck in the mud.  The wheels came off, and the tide came.  Their vehicles filled with water, and all of the soldiers were either drowned or ended up smelling like rotting salmon.   Later, the trail went through the desert.  The food ran out, it was hotter than Lillooet in the middle of summer, and there wasn’t a drop of water in sight.  Moses’ friends became very frightened.  But Moses taught them still to look ahead to God.  They found both food and water in the desert, and eventually they reached the fertile farm land that God had promised them.

Our New Testament story is about Peter.  Jesus wanted him to go on a very dangerous trail, from Galilee to Jerusalem.  Every one seemed against them in the city.  At first, Peter got very frightened, and sort of fell off his bicycle, pretending he didn’t even know Jesus.  But eventually, he also learned to look ahead, and he became one of the great leaders of the church.

So, next time you go out on a trail ride think about Moses and Peter, and remember when it seems difficult to stand up for something that you know is right, it will be much easier if you look ahead to Jesus for leadership and encouragement...