Twenty-year-old Lygon Stevens, an experienced mountaineer, had reached
the summits of Mt. McKinley, Mt. Rainier, four Andean peaks in Ecuador, and 39
of Colorado’s highest mountains. “I climb because I love the mountains,” she
said, “and I meet God there.” In January 2008, Lygon died in an avalanche while
climbing Little Bear Peak in southern Colorado with her brother Nicklis, who
survived.
When her parents discovered her journals, they were deeply moved by the
intimacy of her walk with Christ. “Always a shining light for Him,” her mother
said, “Lygon experienced a depth and honesty in her relationship with the Lord,
which even seasoned veterans of faith long to have.”
In Lygon’s final journal entry, written from her tent 3 days before the
avalanche, she said: “God is good, and He has a plan for our lives that is
greater and more blessed than the lives we pick out for ourselves, and I am so
thankful about that. Thank You, Lord, for bringing me this far and to this
place. I leave the rest—my future—in those same hands and say thank You.”
Lygon echoed these words from the psalmist: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 121:2).
We can trust our all-knowing God for the unknown future. (RBC)
