Above the Mountaintop

Russell and Allison at Cumberland Falls Lookout

Corbin, Kentucky

October 2003

Psalms 99:9 NIV

"Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy."

In the early 1970s, my family and five or six other families from our church traveled from Cincinnati to Virgie, Kentucky, to hold Vacation Bible School for a small country church we were helping.

We set up our campground behind an elementary school on The Long Fork of Marshalls Branch that led through the holler and up the mountain. 

The scenic view leading to Virgie left us spellbound, especially when we saw wooden automobile bridges one-car length wide swinging high over ravines. I couldn't imagine having to drive a car over such a bridge, especially in winter months.

We had wonderful moments during our five days there.  One adventure we loved was riding the school bus up the mountain to collect kids for VBS. The preacher had to turn the bus around at the top of the mountain with little room to spare. I remember the suspense we felt as we looked out the rear window to see how much room was left on the road before we plummeted over the cliff. However, each day we made a safe turn and headed back to the church singing through open windows all the way down the mountainside.

We loved playing with the local kids and singing VBS songs. I don't know how many times we sang, "The Lord Said to Noah, There's Gonna be a Floody-Floody" or "Deep and Wide".  We sang grown up songs as well: "Amazing Grace" and "In the Garden".  The youth even taught our parents modern songs like, "It Only Takes a Spark to Get a Fire Going".

At night we spent time with our folks around the campfire.  We roasted marshmallows and made jelly pies. We popped pop corn. We were lucky enough to have permission to use the restroom facilities of the school, so we could clean up some throughout the week.

During the day, when we weren't in VBS, we kids found ways to entertain ourselves. There was a ballfield next to the school, and we played pick-up softball games with local kids.

Once, a thunderstorm rolled through the holler, and we all were covered in mud. Sliding into the bases was never as much fun as it was that day. We discovered sliding head-first into second base from twelve feet away was fairly easy for tall teenage boys. We laughed the whole game, although we weren't laughing so hard when we tried to wash mud out of our hair.

As wonderful as those moments were, though, it's a mountain and a tree on top the mountain I remember best.

My dad sat in his lawn chair and studied the mountain opposite the school.  He'd point to the tip-top point of the mountain and to the tallest tree on the tallest point and say, "That's my tree."  I can see it in my mind's eye clearly.  Dad's tree reaching to heaven, right there next to God. Every summer for three years we looked for it.

After 37 years, I still remember the mountain and the tree stretching toward heaven to be closer to God. Whenever I see a tall tree on a mountaintop, I think of dad and how close he is to God now. He's closer than all the trees on all the mountaintops.
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Lord, thank you for the beauty of your world.