Glimpsing the Forest - M. Laycock

I remember a day when I stood on a high mountain top in the middle of the Yukon Territory. I looked out over range after range of mountains and forests and knew there were very few people out there looking back. It made me feel small but it overwhelmed me with a sense of being part of something huge - a creation so vast and beautiful that it made me weep.

I came to Christ in a tiny mission church in a far northern corner of the Yukon. For about three years I attended Sunday services in a small run-down building that held almost the entire Christian population of that town, somewhere around 30 people. For those three years that was my entire exposure to the Christian world.

Then my husband and I began to feel that God had something planned for us and within a short time we found ourselves selling our home on the banks of the Klondike river, loading up all of our worldly belongings, including two little girls and a full-gown Husky dog, and making the long journey south to attend Canada's largest Bible College located in the middle of the Canadian prairies.

I didn't expect the culture shock that hit as we settled into life in a place that was not only very different geographically, but also culturally. Coming from a small town where there were very few Christians, it was astounding to realize we now lived in a community where everyone was a believer, from the postmaster to the mechanic, from the hairdresser to the doctor.

I remember standing on a street corner on that first Sunday, watching more than 2,000 people walk toward the large building where Sunday services were held. I remember standing in the congregation, in absolute awe at the sound of those 2,000 voices singing praises to God. And I remember weeping. I was once again standing on a mountain top and realized that the Christian world was not small and insignificant, it was many and mighty. Suddenly I glimpsed the whole forest.

It made me feel small, but it also overwhelmed me with the knowledge that I was part of something huge, a part of God's kingdom, a part of the wider family of God.

There have been times, as a Christian writer, that I have felt small, alone and isolated. I have wondered if there really was any significance to what I did. But then I would hear reports of how God moved at a large writers' conference or hear about a response to a friend's work or get an email about my own work from someone in a foreign country, or be overwhelmed with well-wishes from every corner of the continent and beyond, when I posted news of signing a writing contract. And once again I would be on a mountain top, glimpsing the forest, the vast congregation of God's people, writing and ministering for and with Him.

And I weep with the knowledge that I am privileged to be part of it.

"Praise God in the great congregation; praise the Lord in the assembly of Israel."  Psalm 68:26

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Abundant Rain, Marcia's devotional ebook for authors of faith is now available on Amazon. For more information on Marcia's writing and speaking ministries visit her website.