Grace in the Mountains
Since my porch stoop is not available, I’m writing from my balcony in North Carolina in this post. I absolutely LOVE Fall!! I also love the mountains of North Carolina. Put the two together and I am one happy girl. Of course, I had never been to the mountains in the fall, believe it or not… until this year. And oh, what a surprise God had for ME!
We arrived at our favorite nesting spot, the Stony Creek Motel in Maggie Valley, on Friday afternoon, October 19, 2012. They gave us the key to our room, with a balcony of course, overlooking the Stony Creek. And even in the fall, we still have the window open so we can listen to the creek. It’s like an unspoken rule. Open the window!
To our surprise, this weekend just happened to be the local Arts and Crafts Fair in Maggie Valley, and the Apple Harvest Festival in nearby Waynesville. So of course, we went!
Waynesville is an Historic town, complete with General Store and many other wonderful things. But on this day, the street was shut down and there were vendors galore! Arts, crafts, food, candy, drinks, you name it, it was there. And apples. Before we left, after buying a few items, we also had to buy apples (who can resist little boys in Boy Scout uniforms)! Then it was off to the bike and heading for the mountains.
We got on the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed… Up! As we took the first few curves of the Blue Ridge into the mountains, radio playing, the leaves are falling across our path, onto us. That’s when we hear from the radio,
“Hallelujah! Grace like rain, falls down on me. Hallelujah! All my stains are washed away!”
When we stopped for the first overlook, I asked DA what he was thinking, because he had been shaking his head. His reply was, “I was listening to the song and looked up and saw the leaves falling down, just as he sung “grace like rain falls down on me,” and I thought, this is what it’s all about.”
Grace. Grace, like rain, falls down on me. It falls down on you. And just at that particular moment in time, God had worked all of it together to show us physically what it means. We all have grace. And we should show it to others as well. Because just as we were preparing to leave the overlook, an older couple had pulled in and got out of their car. As they walked toward us, they pointed to our casket and began to ask questions. We were able to share with them about Jesus being the way to heaven. The man was unsure, but said he was “trying.” So we were able to encourage him. They thanked us and we rode off. Divine appointments, even in the mountains.
It took the better part of the day to ride, but it was well worth it. We got a little chilled, but when we got back to our Stony Creek room, I began to look through our “treasures.” While those things are all good, I think the greatest blessings came from looking out over the mountains this day, knowing that grace fell like rain, in the form of fall leaves, down on both of us.
