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| John and Liane in the Ahwahnee Dining Room, May 2016 |
We're both quite down-to-earth people. Strange, "touched-by-an-angel" experiences happen to someone else - not to us. Yet we'd both agree that the journey that culminated in this picture was one of the strangest we have ever experienced. There was a message at its heart - a message of grace and tenderness, a message that we were granted at the exact time we needed it.
So what's the story? I think it is our first day in Yosemite, May 16th that would be if I am right. In the morning we had decided to test my mobility by hiking from the hotel up to Mirror Lake, a distance of a mile or so. With the aid of my trusty hiking poles I am able to manage this without much problem. As we approach the lake we decide to pause for a rest. There is a fallen tree trunk that leans out over the water, and we hike a little off-trail to go sit on this tree trunk at the edge of the lake - to soak up the beauty of Yosemite and, probably, to mull over what lies ahead for us as a result of the cancer diagnosis I have just received. I don't remember many words being said, or needed.
Suddenly, a shout from a hiker on the trail interrupts our contemplation. "Excuse me", she says as she scrambles down to join us. "I couldn't help noticing you and thinking what a beautiful picture you made - a picture of a couple truly in love. I'd be privileged if you'd let me take a picture with your phone, so that you can see what I saw."
OK, I confess, the thought went through my mind: 'Is this some scam to steal my phone?' But it felt as though something real and deep was going on. We agreed, and I lent my phone to this passing stranger who scrambled back to the trail, took a few shots, and came back to give me the phone with its pictures: "So glad to be able to do that for you. Have a great day!"
Wait a minute, you say, John and Liane are not sitting on a log by a lake in the picture I just saw! No, indeed. I still have the picture of us on the log and it is one I love to look at. But it is not the picture. That came a little later.
You see, we gathered ourselves together, a bit bewildered that a complete stranger had found us photogenic in this way, and we hiked back to the hotel. It was now about 2:00 - late enough that it was possible to secure a table for a late lunch. In fact, the dining room was quite empty and we were directed to a beautiful location by a window. We were sitting there waiting for our meal to arrive when the strangest thing happened...
A smartly-dressed lady walks over from another table across the room. Somehow I knew what she was going to say as soon as she started. "I am a professional photographer... I was admiring the picture that you two make in the window over there... I would be honored if you would allow me to take your photograph... picture of real love..."
That is the photograph that you see. It comes about after we were told for the second time in the same day that the love between us was somehow visible. Neither of the people who told us that could have known that we were heading into a time of our lives when we would need to lean heavily on the strength of that love, or that a reminder of what we meant to one another would be specially meaningful that particular day. They reacted to what they saw. But I can't help believing that Someone had a message for us that day, and underlined it by repeating it twice in almost exactly the same way. And the reminder in that message was not just how closely we held one another in love, but how closely we both were held - and still are held - by the love of God.
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