Just a seventeen-minute drive from our downtown hotel, Grouse Mountain— the Peak of Vancouver— has grand nature trek possibilities throughout the four seasons.

Heidi takes me on a snow trip, my first in over thirty years! Her annual pass affords us some lead over the holiday crowds…

…plus half off for my entrance ticket and a discount at the sports shop at the chalet (for anything you might have forgotten)!

The ride up gives us majestic views of Vancouver City.

The chalet has First Nations artifacts, exhibition area, an observatory,  food, lounging area, theatre, and wifi.

There are so many options of snow activities like skiing, sleigh-riding, ice skating, snowboarding, sliding down the hill. We choose snow-shoeing.

After the first five minutes, I told Heidi, “I tried it and I’m happy.  Can I be done?”  She laughed. “There’s a nice view about twenty minutes up.” she said. “There’s no ride to get there?” Okay, I’m a sucker for nice views. My dear friend agrees to go at a slow pace, she is able to share with me the Sunday message at church the Sunday prior:

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” 1 Pet 5:6

My takeaway from her sharing was the call to submit with peace and joy to the circumstances God allows in our lives because He is after all the God with the mighty hand who proved Himself over and over as the God Who Is Able To Do The Impossible— one example of which was how he guided Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt while He created the circumstances that changed ultraboost-hardhearted Pharaoh’s heart.

Deut 26:8 So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.

When things don’t go my way, do I want to take charge and control others or fight others so they will yield to my will? I must admit that is many times my initial reaction. The challenge is to:

• humble myself – do not be proud. I am not greater than God.
• submit myself under God’s mighty hand; trust Him to be in control and able to work things out on my behalf as according to His will. His arms are not short so why do I sometimes behave like they are?
• wait for Him to lift me up from that circumstance.

The bible study takes my mind off the work my entire body needed to do in order to move one foot in front of the other with what felt like mini-trampoline shoes.

We reach the view. Thanks Heidi, for patiently taking me up here! The picture doesn’t do justice to seeing this in person.

We walk some more to explore the little corners of Grouse.  There was a sound of a lovely acoustic guitar with vocals concert coming from the woods but our hike just led us to speakers. Still, it heightened our enjoyment of the snow. We took a sleigh ride, played a little in the snow.  We were too frozen to stop for Beaver Tails hand stretched fried pastry! The queues to take the gondola down the mountain gets long during peak times so we headed back early.  If you have more time, you can check out Grouse Mountain’s wildlife refuge and find out about the sanctuary for bears and have breakfast with the bears in the summer (!), walk in the Christmas Village in winter.

This was a lovely exercise for the body and soul!