A Valentine's Day Adventure

Since Valentine's Day is about love, Randy and I decided to spend the day doing what we love -- hiking, enjoying nature, and being together.

A couple months ago some friends of ours gave us a book on "60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Sacramento". We looked for one that promised little foot traffic and allowed dogs, wasn't too long or too strenuous but also not too easy or too short, and off we went.

It was a beautiful wooded trail with lots of ups and downs. But our packs weren't too heavy and we were well shaded from the 70 degree weather. We even found a bench with a view to enjoy our lunch of fruit, cheese, and chocolate.

We weren't too nervous about the fact that the bench was there to honor a woman who had been killed by a mountain lion. But we did keep our eyes and ears open and Jovi close.

After lunch we came across a young couple relaxing in a hammock by the water. The trail then got steep and rocky. I slipped several times as we made our descent. My knees began to ache and Jovi began to limp. But we were nearly 5 miles into our 5 mile hike, so we knew that once we reached the bottom we would be home free.

Except that once we reached bottom a sign indicated that our trailhead was still 3 miles away. How could that be?

We found a shady spot and pulled out our map. We tried to encourage Jovi, who was still limping, to rest. And we ate more chocolate.

Even with our map, however, we couldn't tell where we were or where we'd gone wrong. Because our map only showed the trail we were supposed to be on. Not all the other trails that intersected with it.

There are many times in our lives that we get off track. Sometimes we intentionally choose the way we know isn't right or isn't best. But other times we think we are on the right path, we make what we feel are all the right choices and all the right turns, and it still ends up wrong.

But even though we didn't know where we were, we did have a sign pointing us in the right direction. So we had the choice of backtracking, going up the steep ravine we just came down, or following the sign and trusting it to return us to the right path.

We chose to follow the sign. And it dawned on me to be grateful that we had come across it. Because without the sign we didn't even know we were lost. And here it was giving us a "shortcut" to our car so that we wouldn't have to retrace our steps.

Future signs were a bit more confusing, and ended up taking us 5+ miles to get back to our car instead of 3, but we saw so many beautiful things along the way.

There will be many times in my life that I get lost or off track. No matter how much I commit to serving God I won't get it right all of the time. But I am assured by the fact that God is always watching out for me, pointing me in the way I should go, and showing me beautiful things along the way.