An Out-of-the-Box Mother's Day

Last weekend we had an out-of-the-box Mother's Day which I wouldn't have missed for anything!
An outdoor Mother's Day worship time high up in the mountains!

Our friends the Russells were finally able to get away from the chores, truck driving, and work on the Nebraska ranches to come for just a couple days in the Colorado mountains before the summer rush of work on the ranches leaves them unable to take a vacation, and this time it happened to land over Mother's Day weekend.

Here is a beautiful scene of mountains and antelope and trees about to bud as we drove to our unique Mother's Day destination.

To be honest, at first I secretly missed the joy of attending a church service where mothers are honored and graced with flowers or other pretty memento,

 (it's the one service of the year which is usually practical and encouraging specifically for mothers).

But then Mom Lucas and Mom Russell were worshiping with their entire families plus one extra in the open air, roughing it in the mountains over the weekend, and loving it.

(Yeah, I know, I'm a conundrum, one of those complex beings of the feminine gender, something akin to the mother of John Piper, whom he paid tribute to in this outstanding article last weekend:

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-happiest-woman-i-have-ever-known

Jonathan suggested that we worship at a particular spot on Limber Grove Trail, one of our favorite places in Colorado, and one we wanted to share with the Russells. So here we are on our way there, crossing a board bridge across a stream by beaver dams.

Sam and Isaac having a discussion as we started out.
(There were three Samuels in this group--our Sam, our nephew Samuel, and Sam Russell.)

The Russells also have a Tim, and here our Timmy and their Sam and their Tim further away are exploring by the dam.

The children were soon well ahead of us adults as we climbed a hairpin curve on the trail.

When we were about to cross this rocky mountainside, we knew we were almost there.

And in fairly short order, here we were, at our destination, at Limber Grove, a spot where the twisted and gnarled Limber Pines are around 1000 years old! 

First Jonathan gathered everyone around for the photo shoot you saw at the top of this post.
I couldn't help getting a snap of him getting the camera ready for a timed shot so that we could all be in the photo.

Then we began to sing.  Jonathan Russell, (yes, he has the same first name as my hubby) began "How Great Thou Art!"
We sang all four verses, and it was soooo appropriate, singing it right out there on the mountainside.
"When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,


"Then sings my soul, my Savior, God to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!"


I had brought along a little book of stories behind hymns, and Jonathan read the story of the author who wrote "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." The author used to be involved in alcohol, but went one night with his gang to hear George Whitefield preach, intending to mock and pity the Methodists, but was later converted. He had been impressed by their happiness!
Later he became a minister and preached in several denominations including a Calvinist Methodist church, (boy, I wonder what that was like??), a Congregational, and another kind of church.
We sang that song next, and I thought it was so appropriate, sitting on these huge boulders, to be singing as Samuel did in Bible days when he set up a rock of remembrance,
"Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I've come,
And I hope by Thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home."

We sang "The Lord's Our Rock, in Him we hide, a shelter in the time of storm,"
and "O Safe to the Rock that is Higher than I."
Then Jonathan read a devotional printed off from DesiringGod, asking the probing question, "Who are we willing to disappoint?"
Or to put it another way, "Who are UNwilling to disappoint?"

Every time we say yes to something, we must say no to something else, and sometimes our choice will disappoint people.
The question is not who are we unwilling to love,
but who are we unwilling to disappoint?

John Piper, the author of the devotional, brought out how Mary was willing to disappoint Martha who was anxious and frustrated about serving and pleasing people,
but Mary was unwilling to disappoint Christ.
Mary pleased Christ despite what her sister thought of her, and despite what people who were looking on superficially thought of her.
 It was a most unusual and blessed Mother's Day!