Last Sunday afternoon after our second service of the day at the assisted living center in Licking, Missouri, with family, we drove another fifteen minutes to talk a short walk to a breathtaking place named Slabtown Cave.
(It should have been named Slabtown Cave and Cliff, but then I was not asked before naming the place.)
This dangerous place with a hazardous trail leading to it is located in the Mark Twain National Forest.
Jonathan and Craig moved ahead on the trail while Joella and I trailed behind, visiting as sisters will do.
It wasn't long before we caught up with the youngsters who had congregated at the top of the cliff, or should I say, the top of the cave. It was actually both, and had I known that underneath was hollow, I may not have ventured out as far as I did.
But ignorance is bliss, they say, and so I was blissfully ignorant as I viewed the Big Piney River down below and Paddy Creek Wilderness around.
Upon completing an ultra steep and hazardous climb down the last part of the trail, the scene pictured above is what we ladies saw, and this photo does not include the main back part of the cave.
From the back, this is the scene we saw.
Be aware that the edge of the stones and sand you see is actually the edge. That is where there is suddenly nothing beneath your feet for dozens of feet down.
Suddenly there was a big crash as something fell from above, and had I not seen the log that one of the boys dropped from up above, I may have thought a person had fallen.
The boy up above (not one of mine, thank you, as mine would never, never do such a thing :) :)
was duly reprimanded by his frightened mother, and we continued to try to enjoy the scene without worrying about our husbands walking, in our opinions, much too close to the edge.
As you can see in this picture taken by someone on the other side of the cave, it is a very steep descent down, and you can't even start to see how far down it went.
As we stood in the cave, Craig told us what he had learned recently by attending a local event in which the history of this area was shared.
Back in the 1800's, lumber milling decimated the entire forest in this area.
Hundreds of thousands of feet of lumber were sent down the rivers to St. Louis and St. Charles markets. A man named Pattie ran the mills and became one of the wealthiest men around.
But wealth does not guarantee happiness or a good end. After the death of his wife, Pattie later ended up dying in a Mexican prison in California. I don't know any more details than these that I just read.
But anyway, Craig told us that a town had thrived here, even though now there is hardly a sign of it.
A small stone or concrete door step is about all that can be found to prove that years ago a thriving town existed.
Now it cannot be seen.
This reminded me of a statement made by Rev. Donald Raines at Beavertown God's Missionary Church a week earlier. He was preaching a series of messages from the book of Daniel, and this sermon was based on the prayer Daniel prayed as he besought God to keep His promise to bring back the children of Israel.
Daniel fasted for three weeks, eating no pleasant bread, not knowing that mighty angels were battling in an unseen world above him.
Only when the angel finally got through did Daniel come to realize, from what the angel told him, that his prayers had been heard from the first day.
Rev. Raines told how God said to Daniel,
"You're affecting the unseen world with your seen prayer."
There is a world that we see,
and there is one we cannot see, and yet we know it exists.
When we find ourselves on a steep trail, in a dark cave, or in some other difficult and unwanted spot, may we remember that there is also an unseen world above us in which angels dwell.
When we feel alone and embattled, may we remember that prayer can send them battling through the clouds and the demons and the darkness to come to our aid and our comfort.
Prayer can affect the unseen world--whether above a dark cave of sorrow, a decimated forest of broken dreams and disappointments, or a steep trail of impossible situations.
And unseen angels will battle through,
unseen victories will be won,
and an unseen Hand will reach for ours to help us up that last steep trail leading out of the darkest cave!
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