Once again I shared the story of my middle son sitting next to God, and once again it struck a chord with the person with whom I shared the story.  The story did not occur in a church.

It was several years ago, on his first solo hike into the San Juan mountains.  He had little with him for the backpacking sabbatical, but among his equipment was a book by Emerson.  He is, and was then, spiritual though not particularly religious.  Faith journeys take many paths and this one took him to the Continental Divide.

I, and his other followers on the Spot tracking trail list, watched the screen for the different waypoints of his travels.  Of course, watching tracking dots tells us nothing about what is going on.  All journeys are like that; others can observe, but have no idea what the sojourner is seeing, feeling or experiencing.  Until later.

Later, he sent me a photo.  He had to get below the cell phone towers, off the trails and in a place where signals could be received and sent.  So, it was about almost a week after the photo was taken that he sent it to me.  The image conveyed a magnificent site with granite extending forever to meet the high altitude of blue skies.  Even on the smallish screen of my cell phone, the image was breathtaking.

“I was sitting on the Continental Divide.  I had Emerson with me.  I felt like God was sitting next to me,” my son’s text message said.

I replied, “He was.”

That’s the point.  He always is.  Sometimes we need peace, beauty, calm, introspection and quiet moments to remember. Find those moments for yourself; they can happen anytime and anywhere.