I'm hiking a new trail, well it's new to me, called Ladyfinger's Bluff. It's not far from Mousetail Landing State Park which is just across the Tennessee River. The beauty of this place is remarkable. Delicate purple and white wildflowers line the rocky path that leads you around several coves of the river. Lush ferns are growing in the shadows of the trees. Suddenly, I hear deer escaping up the rocky slope. Many different bird calls filling the canopy of Oaks, Poplars, and Maples with glorious songs.

The trail ends on a sunny bluff which looks to be 200 feet above the river. Boats look like water bugs scurrying across the surface of the water. I see an eagle in the top of an old tree on the other shore. He finally spots his prey, opens his wings then begins to glide across the surface of the river. Finding his quarry, he effortlessly extends his claws then snatches a fish from the water. The eagle starts to climb and seems to be heading towards me. I grab my camera, just as he soars above me with it clicking away. The eagle continues to rise. It seems he's landed in a dead tree that's maybe a hundred yards farther up the hill. "It will be awesome if I can get a picture of him eating that fish!"

I start hunting for a way up to the summit. There's a faded path through the trees. It looks like no one has been up this one in a long time. Pushing through the lower limbs, I begin to follow the trail upwards. Right before the clearing, I stop to find the eagle. He sees me creeping through the trees then flies away before I get there. “Oh, well.”

There's a shape in the bright sun that I can't make out. Five steps closer, I discover a massive white cross glistening in the sunlight. It looks to be twenty-five feet tall, and the center beam is at least fifteen feet long. With a closer look, it made from a shimmering metal that grows out of a vast limestone boulder. The precision work of setting this cross in the stone is impressive, no nuts and bolts to hold it together, I guess it's all one piece. It must weigh a ton, how did they get it out here in the middle of nowhere? I wonder how old it is?

I back up and start taking pictures of this breathtaking sight. It's still bright even with the sun behind me.

Slowly, I put my camera down then walk back to the cross. I have to touch it. Staring at the surface, I hear voices singing within the metal. My hand rises from my side. It feels detached from me, moving on its own. I study the tips of my fingers while they touch the surface. It feels warm and inviting. I begin to shake, reaching both arms around the cross. Tears fall down my cheeks while I caress the cross. Waves of power, flow through me. It feels like love, radiating from inside the cross.

My mind cannot process anything more. The noonday sun fades away.
~

Slowly, I awaken and notice the sun starting to set in the western sky. “I've got to get back down the trail before it gets dark!”

Before leaving the clearing, I have to see the cross one more time. I turn to find...Nothing. “Where did it go?”

I haven't got time to think about that now. I don't want to be stumbling along this trail in the dark. I grab my camera, stuff it in my backpack then start the long trek to my Jeep.

Forty-five minutes later, I'm walking out the gate wondering. “It took me over two hours to get to the bluff and only forty-five minutes to get back? Why aren't my knees killing me?” I hurt my right shoulder playing softball many years ago, and it still hurts to this day. I swing that arm around then raise it over my head. “No pain.”

Getting in my Jeep, I check the rear-view mirror. Long gray hair in a ponytail, gray go-tee, ancient blue eyes, peace sign tie-dye tee-shirt. “It's me, but where are my glasses?” I can't see without them. I'm searching everywhere for them, and they're on top of my head. I slip them on. The world becomes very fuzzy. I take them off; it's clear. “What happened when I touched that cross?”

My mind is utterly blank, driving home. I'm not sure what to think about anything! “How has my life just changed?”

A short while later, I pull into my driveway, grab my gear then go into the empty house. Taking my camera out, I plug it into my computer to download the pictures. After a trip to the bathroom then grabbing a bottled water out of the fridge, I head back to my office to check out the photos on my camera. The wildflowers along the trail are great. The pictures of the eagle soaring by are fantastic. In one of them, he's looking right at me. “I can sell that one!”

My heart jumps when I get to the pictures of the cross. I didn't see it when I was standing beside it, but there was a white cloud hovering above the cross. The more I study the cloud, the more I see a smiling face in the center.

“What does it mean? Who's face is in the cloud?”

~

I haven't left the house in two days; my every waking moment has been spent searching for answers. I've had my nose stuck in my Bible, or I'm on the internet trying to figure out what happened to me when I grabbed the cross. My body is completely healed. I don't even have to wear the glasses that I've worn my entire life.

I've studied every healing performed in the Bible. They were all given to righteous men and women who had great faith. “Do I have great faith?” Some went on to do great things with their lives. I'm a Christian, but I don't do the church thing. I worship every day at home, but I'm still a sinner, like all of us. Is there something for what happened? Some task I need to complete, a life I need to save? But I'm not an essential person in this world. Why not a person with a terminal disease. I'm just an old hippie who worked in a factory for a long time.

Too many questions that I'll never find the answer for; all I can do is have faith and trust God. Only He knows the answer.


“But why me?”