After a big waffle breakfast, I asked my seven kids sitting around the kitchen table, “How about going to the mountains?”
“Hooray! Do we get to play in the snow? Can we get ready?”
“Yes, you can play in the snow, and yes, you can get ready as soon as we clean the table,” I told them.
In no time at all they had the table clean. Then they went in search of boots, hats, gloves, warm socks, and mittens. For a few minutes chaos broke out as the kids tried to round up these seldom-used items.
I helped the kids find their boots, which were lined up against the wall in the garage. At this point, I could have easily grabbed the tire chains which I saw sitting in a box on the shelf, but I thought, “We won’t need them.”
At last we were ready. At least, I thought we were ready. Yani, my ten-year-old son, in the excitement, forgot to wear his boots and only wore his gym shoes. We piled in the van.
We drove for ten minutes to a road directly uphill into the mountains. It was paved and a snowplow had recently cleared it of snow. Soon we reached a logging road that winds around the mountains and takes you into the middle of a wilderness area called the Olympic National Forest. It was covered with six to ten inches of freshly-fallen snow. The road was barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. The forest, white with snow-covered branches, crowded the road on either side. Sometimes the edge of the road was only a few feet from a steep mountainside or a fall of hundreds or maybe thousands of feet. Plainly, I was overconfident.
The Road of Life
Permit me to detour for a moment and make a point. Lots of people suffer from overconfidence when it comes to their relationship with God. Traveling down the road of life with a broken relationship with God puts people in jeopardy of losing their never-dying souls.
Many are going through life on the very edge of a lost eternity and don’t even recognize the danger. Because of their overconfidence, they never think about the risk they are taking.
“Oh, I will be alright if I never get serious with God,” they might think. But what right do they have to think this when God, in His Word, the Bible, has so clearly spoken of the need of sinners to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus? God paid a great price to redeem sinners through the death of His Son. Yet because of overconfidence in their own abilities, the vast majority of people on earth feel they have no need of redemption. Don’t be like those that leave God out of their lives. Think clearly and come to Christ, the Savior of sinners.
The Fun Begins
I certainly wasn’t thinking clearly when we drove six or seven miles, going around bends and curves, sometimes going up and sometimes going down. “Hold still,” I told my kids who were bursting with excitement and were squirming around.
At last we came to part of the road that sloped down for about a quarter mile. We drove down this section of road and arrived at the trailhead. As soon as I parked, the kids piled out, and the fun began.
We walked down the wilderness trail kicking snow up with our boots. Every once in a while, we would round a bend and get an incredible panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains covered with fresh snow. The boys playing in the snow reminded me of river otter pups. Whenever they came to a small slope, instead of walking down it, they would slide down it on their bellies, and then roll over onto their backs and make snow angels by waving their arms up and down. Seven-year-old Arvids was so covered with snow I could only see two of the thousand freckles on his face.
On we walked for a couple of miles until we came to a side trail called “Cat Trail.” This trail got its name from mountain lions that have been spotted on it. This trail took us into a ravine whose sides were so steep that the only way down was to slide on our behinds. We crossed a creek on a slippery wooden bridge and hiked on. The kids were having such a good time they lost track of the time. At last it came time to turn around and return to the car.
On the way back it felt like the temperature was dropping. Also, the light was getting dimmer. Night comes quickly in the shadowy mountains.
When we got back to the van, I was surprised to see how wet the kids were. Snow had gotten in their boots and fallen through their collars, and then melted, soaking their clothes. I had them take off their coats, boots and socks so they could get warm in the car.
Stuck
When I turned the key and started the van I noticed that the van was low on gas. I put the van in low gear and stepped on the gas, and that’s when our troubles began. The wheels spun but they could get no traction on the road. A layer of ice had formed beneath the snow on the road. I tried rocking the van back and forth by stepping on the accelerator but it didn’t work.
With cold fingers I fumbled with the cell phone to call for help, but it was useless. The cell phone didn’t have any reception in the mountains.
I was worried about the kids, so I told them to huddle close together on the back seat. I took off my coat and covered them up with it to keep them warm. I felt Yani’s bare feet. They felt as icy cold as freshly-caught Arctic trout. I gave him my stocking cap to put his feet into.
I had an idea. I thought if I could build up a little speed and momentum I could make it up the road. I could back up in reverse because the road sloped gently down in that direction. I told the kids not to make a sound so I could concentrate and started to drive in reverse down the winding mountain road. I could only see where we were going by looking in the side view mirror. I knew if I went off the road we would get stuck or, even worse, tumble hundreds of feet down the mountainside. We drove like this for a mile or so until we came to a flat stretch of road where we could turn around and I could pick up speed.
The moment of truth had come. I took a deep breath and stepped on the gas. The van started moving back up the hill. I dared not go too fast. Back to the trailhead we drove, and then when we got to the part of the road that went steadily uphill, the tires started spinning on ice once again, and we came to a complete standstill.
“Wow, I think we’re in big trouble,” I told the kids. The van was getting really low on gas, nightfall wasn’t far off, and we were stuck on the mountain.
Rescue
“Dad,” Yani said, “you know how you tell us to pray about things?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“I think we should pray about this.”
I was a little shocked that I hadn’t thought about praying. When we ran into trouble, my mind got immediately busy trying to figure out how to get out of the trouble and I had never thought to pray.
“You know, Yani, I think you are right.” So we all bowed our heads in the car and prayed, asking God to help us get off the mountain and back to our home. After we prayed, I told the kids to remain quiet and try to stay warm. Every so often I would run the engine to warm the car up, but I didn’t want to keep it running in order to save the gas in case we had to spend the night on the mountainside. We waited like this for an hour or so.
Lost in my thoughts, I was surprised when two young men in a small four-wheel-drive pickup truck drove up. I believe in angels. I know these two men were not angels, but they were like angels in the way they went about cheerfully helping us. They offered to tow us off the mountain. Crawling in the snow, they hooked a tow rope from the back of their truck to the front of our van. Slowly the tow rope went taut and I gently stepped on the gas in the van to help out. But the van still didn’t budge.
I gave the two young men the cell phone number of my father-in-law who I thought could drive out with the set of tire chains. They agreed to give him a call and drove off. But they did much more than this. They drove back into town and got a friend who also had a four-wheel-drive pickup truck. They hooked up a tow rope from this pickup truck to the front of their pickup truck, and then a second tow rope from the back of their truck to our van so that we had all three vehicles connected. We were sort of like a train with two locomotives hooked up to a caboose.
It was touch and go for several minutes when they started pulling, but then the van started to move up the hill. By now it was pitch black. The last thing I wanted was to have another mishap on the icy mountain road. They towed us the six or seven miles out of the National Forest and back to the paved road. In the darkness and cold, we unhooked the vehicles. We gave the fellows our heartfelt thanks. They had saved us from spending a bitterly cold night lost in the mountains. It was a really good feeling to be on the road headed for home.
The Road Home
I firmly believe that God answered our prayers. Prayer is one of the most important things anyone can do in life. Do you know that there is a prayer God wants to hear from every sinner? It is the prayer for forgiveness. He wants sinners to come to Him to seek His pardon. Isaiah 55:6-76Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6‑7) reads, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” He wants them to get off the slippery slopes of sin. He knows how helpless they are in their own strength and is very willing to help them. Apart from the help and grace of God, not a soul alive could ever get off the dark mountain of sin. Without faith in Christ, sinners will, at best, be perpetually spinning their wheels getting nowhere. Won’t you get on the road that leads home to heaven by putting your faith in Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). He is the Savior that will take those who trust Him, not partway, but all the way home to heaven.
Thank God there has never been a heartfelt prayer for deliverance that God didn’t delight to answer. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee” is a verse full of encouragement (Psalm 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15)). Call upon Him today and see what remarkable deliverance He can do on your behalf.
When we’ve been rescued, as Overlooking the Most Important Person points out, gratefulness comes next.