Over spring break Overflow Church took about 40 college students to Santa Fe for 3 days of skiing. We had a great time, despite the fact that people in Santa Fe are lacking tremendously in comparison to Texans on their friendliness. This was discovered when one of the girls that came on our trip was snowboarding with a group of people. Keith Baldridge, our College Minister was one of those. They had been going down some pretty difficult runs and all of the sudden Claire found herself stuck in deep powder, her board no where near her, and completely alone. Her group couldn’t find her so they decided to head back up the mountain and see if they could ski back down and find her. On the lift up, Keith called out Claire’s name. She replied and so as soon as Keith got to the top of the mountain he skied down to where she was. As Keith approached her busted and fell flat on his face. So there Keith and Claire were, trying to get Claire out of the snow and back down the mountain. The man working the ski patrol sees them and starts making comments. He told them “it doesn’t look like yall should be on this run.” The Ski patrol man was watching them struggle as they were trying to get Claire out from the snow. When Keith tells the story he talks about how when he saw Claire in that moment he saw her as his own daughter. After the ski patrol made the comment Keith held out his hand to him and said, “I’ve got this, she’s with me.” Keith stood in the gap between Claire and the nagging ski patrol man.
The reason I wanted to share this incident on my blog, was because of the symbolism it holds to how Christ stands in between the enemy for us. Claire chose to be under Keith’s authority when she signed up for the trip. When she was skiing with him, she chose to be under his watch, his protection and care. And when she was stuck and needed help she chose Keith’s tending to her over the rude ski patrol. Not only did Claire choose Keith, Keith held his hand out and stood up for Claire. He called her by name, came to her rescue, stood in between the gap, and helped her get back on her feet. It’s a beautiful picture of Christ’s love for us. He will fight for us and He will stand in the gap for us, if we choose to submit to His authority and not the world’s. The world nags, discourages, picks and pries at us, but we can overcome!! We are Overcomer’s in Christ’s power and strength. We are loved so deeply by him and he hears our cries and comes to our rescue! What an amazing God we have :)
I had so much fun with everyone that went, and I can’t wait for our next trip together!! Here’s some pictures from our trip!
