Wild and Wonderful, Pt. 0

Part 0 (Summer in the Mountains) — Part 1 (Say Uncle) — Part 2 (Family… Sorta?)
— Part 3 (Fireflies)

A few facts about Cassie: She hated the cold, she hated having colds, and she hated long car rides. As such, her first trip with me to West Virginia was not very fun for her.

We went with my parents in around Thanksgiving of 2013 to visit extended family, she had to suffer all three of those things she hated, as well as an obnoxiously happy boyfriend trying to get her to have fun anyways. It was snowing, which was exciting given that she never had the experience of playing in it before. But then on the way up Cassie started to get the sniffles. By the next day it was a full-blown cold.

And she felt too sick to do much more than smile and nod when we met all my family on Thanksgiving Day. We visited some state parks, but it was really too cold for her to enjoy being outside much. The whole trip had seemed like a great idea, but being on the road for nearly 12 hours with body aches was just dreadful for her (that’s not including the trip to Jacksonville first).

We went back again for Thanksgiving in 2017. There was much less sickness and much less snow (but the same amount of cold). Cassie got to enjoy the love and hospitality so abundant in my family from the hills. Still, it wasn’t an ideal time for her to visit—and we hoped to come back the following Summer. Just as much as she despised frigid air, cramped road trips and talking to near strangers through a stuffy nose, she loved the sunshine, outdoor adventures and sharing life with kin.

Without Cassie, it still seemed wrong to not head up there for a spell. It was a shame she couldn’t see the place during a season that agreed with her more. It had been three months since her passing, and I couldn’t believe all of Spring was already gone. When reflecting on the experience, I’m reminded of a story:

All the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

^….

Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

^….

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives”

…

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

Excerpts from Genesis 7-9

I gotta say, Noah had to have felt an overwhelming sense of relief at that proclamation of God. It’s a feeling I know I can relate to.

Noah saw his world fall apart around him. However, his faith prepared him for it. God let him know ahead of time that difficult times were coming. Noah made that faith a part of him. It was faith in a God that provides for us. It was faith in a God who readies us for those terrible things only he knows are ahead, if we only open ourselves up to him.

Noah had the comfort that his God would guide him through the ordeal. He had the comfort of loved ones closest to him. He may have had to endure months of gloom, but he had comfort of knowing the torrent would end. And when it finally did, God made a promise: The world will keep spinning, winters will pass, summers will come and life will thrive again.

I went to West Virginia with that same promise in mind.

Yes, my world had fallen apart. But my God prepared me for such a time. My faith was built on nothing less than the promises of trials and tribulations, and on nothing more than Christ’s promises of hope and redemption. As a Christian, I can say it’s a part of who I am, as I chase after Christ who was crucified, but who was also resurrected.

Like Noah, I’ve had an incredible bunch of loved ones surround me for the worst of it. And as I have come out of the storm, I can see God’s promise that the world will always be full of life. Winters, like the ones Cassie hated, will pass and they have passed. Summers, like this last one, will continue to come around, sunshine and all.

I’m writing this at the beginning of Fall. So before it gets too late into the year, I ought to tell you about this part of my Summer in West Virginia…

Part 0 (Summer in the Mountains) — Part 1 (Say Uncle) — Part 2 (Family… Sorta?)
— Part 3 (Fireflies)