Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 39) Music in the Mountains

Our youngest son, Wes and his wife Dylan are expecting a baby girl this week.

On Thursday proof copies of Finding Bittersweet should arrive out on Bittersweet Farm. Soon thereafter the book will be available on Amazon. If you sometimes wrestle to see the sweet in the bitter our you know someone who does, I think this book will encourage and inspire.

Sometimes things will get better. Sometimes they will not get better in this life. It is then especially when our faith is tested and we cling to the promises of God. Today’s story is an example of that.

Music in the Mountains

Our oldest son, Kyle is a pastor in Grand Rapids. A couple years ago a family needed his pastoral services. Grandpa had died. Kyle preached his funeral and ministered to the family. A few months later the family called again. This time the news was especially bitter. Their fourteen-year-old son had died at his own hand. The family was devastated.

Kyle spent time with them. He prayed with them and listened to their stories. The boys mother and father were divorced. They shared custody. Kyle asked the boy’s mother if she could share a happy memory about her boy. She told him this story:

One summer they visited the Natural Bridge State Park in Kentucky. The plan was for them to hike up to the bridge together. It is a tough hike. On the way up mom ran out of strength. She just couldn’t go on. She found a bench and sat down to rest. Brokenhearted, she told her son, “Go on without me. I’ll have to wait for you here.”

He sat down with her. “Mom, I love you. I didn’t come here to see the Natural Bridge. I came to spend time with you.”

She insisted. He took off and ran to the top and quickly returned to join his mom on the bench. He said, “There’s someone up there with an instrument, mom.”

They sat there in silence at dusk or a few minutes when, suddenly beautiful music began to drift down from above them. Not just birdsong and wind in the leaves, but something more. It was the cello. The music filled the giant amphitheater of mountain and forest with with music.

They sat and listened to the music that day on the bench on the mountainside—music that seemed especially arranged for them.

She said; “I will always cherish that memory.”

Deep silence.

Kyle listened to the story quietly and then said; “One day there will be a new heaven and there will be a new earth. I think in the new heaven and the new earth there will still be a Natural Bridge. I think you can go back one day. In your glorified body you will be able to reach the top together.

Life in this broken world can damage your spirit and threaten your faith, but we have the promises of God that one day all that is wrong in this world will be made right and those who hope in Jesus will be with Him again in a place were divorce do violence to love and young boys will never again be crushed with despair.

Bittersweet Farm
April 7, 2019