Advent thoughts, Mt.Fuji style

It was August, but we could see our breath, and fingers shoved into cozy mittens still went numb from the cold. It was 3am. Pitch black. Walking in an endless row of people zigzagging up the steep mountainside; awkwardly plodding along, occasionally climbing up rough portions of the trail on all fours. This probably sounds like the beginning to some horrible nightmare, but it was actually fantastic: my younger brother and sister were visiting from the states, and we were going to make it to the top of Mt. Fuji in time to see the sunrise.

We brought flashlights, but they were weak and the small stream of light quickly faded. If we tried to make the hike in the dark we probably would have tripped and found ourselves tumbling down to the base, or at best been stuck in the freezing cold until sunrise. But in the pitch black, even that puny penlight of a flashlight would have been enough to kind of get by. Not ideal, maybe a bit unnerving, but enough. But because we were surrounded ahead and behind with people who came prepared with powerful flashlights and headlamps, we hardly needed our flashlights at all. Thanks to their light, I could see reasonably clearly. Navigating the path in front of me, deciding where to step, was no problem.

But if that had been it: climbing up a mountain in the dark, then carefully making our way all the way back down in the dark, just to say we did it…there is no way I would have gone, much less invited my siblings along. What made it worth it, was hiking on with confident hope of the sunrise. Because it happens every day! We knew that after all the hiking and waiting and freezing, that glorious orange disk was going to slice through the clouds, paint the sky with beautiful colors, and warm our chilled faces and fingers. Not only was the sun itself gorgeous, in its light everything else was beautiful too. We see the path clearly, and the black sky and black mountainside and black valley of the climb up were transformed into a beautiful landscape of reds and greens and blues.

This advent season, it’s dawned on me that life is kind of like climbing Mt. Fuji. Sure it’s wonderful, great times, can be lots of fun and all, but it can also feel ridiculously hard. And sometimes what I am equipped with feels like a puny little flashlight. But it’s more than OK. Because the light is all around, behind and ahead, and we are far from being alone. And best of all? Well, like the sunrise, that’s yet to come. But I can hike, zigzag, awkwardly plod through life with joy, peace, love, and confident hope. Because it happens every day!  Christ is risen. He came. He’s coming again. He’ll never fail to show up. Emmanuel!