Real Sunshine

There certainly weren’t enough hours in today.  The sun was still shining brightly over our part of Norway and I could have just sat in one spot and soaked it up until sundown.  As it was, however, Kory and I climbed up a nearby mountain to sit there and soak up a few rays, have a snack and thank God for our incredible life.  It feels so much more exciting around here when the sun is shining.

Sukkertoppen (The Sugar Top) is a fairly low mountain sitting right next to downtown Aalesund, so the view from there is great.  I wasn’t even sore from all the hiking over the weekend, and I went up at a pretty good clip.  Kory still didn’t get angina so we were thankful for that.  There were only a few other folks up there so it was very peaceful and we just sat and looked all around us for a good long while before heading back down.

As we were leaving the trail, a group of pre-school kids were heading up.  They take their mountain hikes seriously in this part of Norway – starting them out young.  Even in school each year, the classes take several hikes up into the mountains for the day.  Once they reach 7^th grade, they start sleeping over in the mountains for more and more days.  Rain or shine, they teach the kids skills in a way that’s reminiscent of the Boy Scouts program.  I think it’s kinda cool that’s a big part of their basic education system here in Norway.

We made it back home in time for me to relax (aka “snooze”) a bit in our reclining deck chair (I call it “the sleeping chair”) before Kaleb came home from school and there was no time for relaxing after that.  I so needed the sunshine on my bones, but it’s always good to hear Kaleb’s chatter about what happened at school today.  He was quite proud of the butter knife he finished.  He was sure no one sanded theirs quite as well as he did his, since he’s had so much practice back home in the wood shop with Kory.  It is pretty nice and I’ll accept it as a late birthday present, even if he didn’t intend it to be that.

My friend, Kristin, who holds the prayer meetings each week, invited me to join her tonight to attend a service at a private chapel over near Hovdenakken, close to Molde, across the fjord.  An old lady there was an only child and inherited the family farm.  She has no children and she’s now a widow, so she uses this incredible place of hers in service to God.  The old house is decorated just as it should be, full of family antiques passed down for centuries.  She has seven bedrooms available for retreats.  She cooks the food and provides a place for people to “be still” with God.  All the retreats are meant to be silent, so it’s a good life for her, not having to chit-chat with the guests, as the Norwegians really aren’t in to much chit-chat.

Near the house she built a small chapel where she holds prayer meetings or these semi-monthly services that are somewhat like the state church where there is responsive reading, singing and Bible reading. She prays for all the prayer requests and there’s a quiet time for prayer.  She makes “kvelds mat” (night food) and invites everyone into her lovely home to eat and drink coffee and talk a bit.  It was quite the experience.

The best part of the evening, however, was that Kristin thought it started at six o’clock and it didn’t start until eight, so we sat for two hours in the chapel all by ourselves and just listened to the voice of God.  It was really powerful.  Among other things, I had a vision of waves rolling onto the beach and God told me He was the wave and I was the shoreline, so He was constantly reshaping me with storms and calm seas, taking away those things that aren’t good and replacing them with things that are.  That was good to know. 

Kristin and I also had a short discussion about the meaning of Psalm 121 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.” We were surrounded by mountains outside and as I looked out the windows of the chapel I thought of that verse and wondered what the mountains represented.  I closed my eyes and saw a picture of a person walking through a valley, and of course, what makes a valley a valley is that it’s surrounded by mountains.  We often refer to the low points in our lives as “valleys” and the good times as being on the mountaintop, and I heard God say that He was the mountain – surrounding us when we are down so low.  So the meaning of the verse became obvious.

Just as I was telling Kristin what I heard from God, I looked up to the mountain out the window, and the moon was beginning to rise right over the ridge.  It was so awesome to see at that exact moment.  And the window was very long and narrow and the moon was right in the middle of it and about 60% full, so it looked like the flame on top of a candle – with the window shape and the light on top.  Very surreal.

We left home at 3:30 and I didn’t get back until nearly midnight, so it was quite the outing for me today.  I think the boys just sat home on their various electronic entertainment systems and wasted away the day.  Kaleb swore he did some homework and played the piano, but with Kory on “guard” I’m sure it wasn’t much.  Kory tends to let Kaleb run the show a bit too much and Kaleb knows how to work him… so when this mouse is away, the cats do play.