A Mountain Top Experience

By David Neilson

Let me tell you about a Mountain Top experience that sustains me to this day. It was

not a Christian event although there were some Christians involved. It was not high

on a hill. In many ways it may seem an ordinary compassionate response to a

harrowing time.

On the 17th August 2024 my wife Lorna was in the Alexandra Unit and we were

anticipating her imminent death. It was a hard time and we were both tired. On this

sunny summer day the windows of the room were flung wide, the door to the ward propped

open and the doors round the unit were also opened. A group from the Cairn Chorus

came to the hospital, a motley crew of folk with all types of spiritual beliefs and

lifestyles. They came to support their friends, to say goodbye to a loved one, to give

a gift they knew would be a blessing. They sang songs of lament, joyful optimism,

mourning and finally the Irish blessing to set our path before us and comfort our

journey through the valley of shadows.

In that time we became aware of the ongoing presence of God with us, Emmanuel.

And yes we could lament, yes we could rejoice, yes we could mourn and in it all the path

before us would be accomplished with the ongoing presence of the Lord with us, and a homecoming be the result.

Lorna died on the morning of the 23rd of August just 6 days later. The sense that the

journey had been lived to the right end was underpinned by the words and music in

the gift given by our friends. That experience sustains me even now as I navigate

this strange and uncharted land called grief. Look for the Mountain Tops in the

ordinary lives we lead and you will find them and they will sustain you as you seek to

follow the one who is teacher, mentor and glorious saviour.