Wedding in the Mountains

(picture is from Donna Rowland's FaceBook site)
On Saturday, I did a wedding for a couple from northern Minnesota. They came out to Cooke City with family and friends...and about 15 snowmobiles. The groom proposed to his fiance after he was dug out from an avalanche on Lulu Pass. Of course, the plan was to propose in a more appropriate place. When I met with them in the summer I thought they wanted to be married in Mount Republic Chapel, given that it would still be winter and all, but they said they wanted to be married at the top of Daisy Pass. I said OK to it, never having been up there and never having been on a snowmobile. But by the time they got here, I had been up to Daisy Pass numerous times and have been on a snowmobile more than I would have imagined.

So on Saturday morning at about 10:45, I got on the Yamaha Mountain Max 600 I am borrowing and rode up to Daisy Pass with about 30 other people to do a wedding on the mountain. Once up there, they decided to line up the snowmobiles facing one another, forming an aisle. The bride and groom rode down the aisle on a hyped up Polaris snowmobile and we did the ceremony right at the edge of the Daisy Pass hill. The weather was spectacular - clear, 50 degrees and hot in the sun. At 9300 feet, we are closer to the sun and the atmosphere is thinner. My friend Jeff took this picture. I will have more pictures of the event soon.

I write this on the evening of Easter Sunday. Again, we had beautiful weather up here in Cooke City. The church was full and children sang as we prayed. When we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ we are celebrating an historical event that is astonishing and crazy and wonderful. But that is the way God is with us - in our spiritual lives, in our shared history and in our experience here on this lonely planet. May the resurrection live in your hearts, minds and souls. May it be as true for you as it was for the disciples who witnessed it all those many years ago.
Peace!
Pastor Seth

When does it end?

Snowing again in Cooke City? Who would have believed it...?

(the truck is supposed to be white-where the paint is not peeling-but has been given a Cooke City paint job)

Being from Minnesota, I know well the trajectory of winter. In Minnesota, about 3 weeks ago, everybody would be ornery, frustrated and tired. Why? Because it just won't stop being cold and snowy. Here, in Cooke City, the trajectory is the same. With a big exception. About 4 times more snow and another month of variable winter weather. Spring lurks in Minnesota, threatening to rush forth at any moment, at this time of year. Here, spring hides and peers out, meekly sticking a robin in a tree, suggesting a migration of a moose or buffalo to lower ground. I haven't been out here long enough to know how spring appears, so I have to have some confidence that, if it is appearing elsewhere, it must show up here...someday? I had a teacher once who said, "Well, there must be something more important to you than the weather, otherwise why would you stay?" Indeed, the church, the people and the amazing creation that surrounds us goes far toward lessening the worok of constantly renewing my hope for spring.

Regardless, whether or not spring comes sooner or later, my primary life is governed by the church calendar, not the seasonal calendar. We have just finished a series of sermons on Spiritual Disciplines at Mount Republic Chapel and we are entering Easter Week with Palm Sunday this Sunday. Easter is my favorite holiday. Celebrating the reason we believe is what we do every Sunday, but how much more so on the day we honor as the day Christ rose from the dead. (For those who wonder when that is calculated to be, just find the date of the Spring Equinox, then find out when the next full moon is, then count 3 Sundays following that...I think).
(this wolf was on the Lamar River, just inside Yellowstone Park, only about 15 miles from our home. He was huge.)