Encountering the creator...

Many people can recall to one moment in their life where
they had a surreal experience, or an amazing encounter where their heavenly
father presented himself to them in a very intimate way. However for me I
cannot place my finger on one moment, I have an eclectic collection of places
where God has met me where I was and revealed to me his glory. The majority of
these experiences occur when I go to meet God, when I take myself out of my
comfort zone, and prepare my heart for some one on one time with my father.  The most prominent of these memories are from
taking sunrise hikes. 

There's something about the early morning that always makes
me feel close to my creator... something in the stillness of the air. Sunrise
hikes became something I started doing with girls from my life group, a group
of girls I meet with weekly to study the word and grow in the Lord. A while
back we decided instead of meeting in the same room over and over again, we
wanted to meet God in the middle of his creation. So bright and early (well
more like DARK and early) we would wake up and meet on different trails and
race to make it to the top before the sun so we could watch its light slowly
reveal to us a different view of the world we know so well.

One particular trail, called the Garcia trail, I remember
separately because not only is it a good long hike, but it was steep and
extremely rigorous. From the bottom you could see the top of the mountain and
were mildly comforted that it did not appear to extreme, steep yes, but not too
far up.  As we started the hike some of
us felt bold and took it on a jog as we rounded some of the first few
switchbacks, we grew a little tired but could look up and see where the
mountain reached its peak and so we kept on. However as we trekked and trudged
with slower and slower strides we began to get discouraged as we realized what
we thought was the top was only another switch back. 

After what felt like an eternity our tired bodies finally
rounded the last bend and we were greeted by a stunning white cross marking the
top of the road.  As the sun peaked over
the top it was a surreal experience as the draining hike put an extra bit of
perspective on life and God revealed to me something that was much needed at
that time, the realization that life is going to be full of switch backs, false
hopes of endings and steep up hills, but if we trust in God and continue to
follow his path for us we will make it.

The peace and awe that filled me in this moment were
indescribable. The glory of God I knew I could not fathom in even with this
glimpse where I felt so close to God and so touched by his love.  It was so mind boggling to truly see that I
could only mime back a small portion of God's love and care for me. That his
protection was so infinite and so great there was nothing that it would not
cover, and that no matter how much I loved him in return it was only a small
mirror of the expansive compassion he holds for me.