Crossing Creeks and Other Slippery Places

Ever heard of Camp Dix, Kentucky? Probably not. Ever heard of Vanceburg, Kentucky? Maysville? The last two maybe, but I doubt if very many ever heard of Camp Dix. It is located in the hills of Lewis County, northeast of Louisville. It is a totally rural area and holds a world full of memories for me. The county is named for Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expeditions.

My dad was born in Lewis County, specifically Camp Dix, and lived there until his mid twenties. He then went to the Cincinnati area, met mom, and as they say, the rest is history. We made many trips to Lewis County in August of each summer visiting my grandmother, a godly, soft spoken, gentle pioneer type who was known as Aunt Lucy to a world full of friends. Dad’s family would have grandma’s birthday and a reunion all in one day; lots of friends and family and TONS of food. Fishing, swimming, playing with cousins, exploring the rugged hills, visiting aunts and uncles; all these were part of our summers.

One place in particular was the Kinniconick (called Kinni by the locals), a creek that runs through Lewis County, just a short walk from where my dad was born and raised. Just down the dirt road a ways from where grandma’s house stood was the remains of the old one room school house dad attended. Just off to the left of that was a place where cars could cross the creek when it was not too high. I always thought that was really ‘cool’, if not a little scary. I mean, what if a giant wave came rushing up and got us? That never happened, of course. As it turned out, there were no giant waves in Kinni.

When the creek was shallow enough, you could actually wade across that same place. We would take that trek occasionally, mainly because of Aunt Lilly’s general store on the other side. Aunt Lilly was one of dad’s sisters, and she and her husband, Uncle Doug Hamilton owned the store. In the ‘dog days’ of August, it was great fun going over there, especially since Aunt Lilly would give us free stuff, including a cold soft drink (my favorite was grape soda) and other goodies.

Crossing the creek was a scary thing to a small kid…scary that is until my older sister Anita would take my hand and help me negotiate those slippery rocks. Sometimes she would let go of my hand and simply say, “Watch where you’re stepping. The rocks can be slippery.” I would stare down into the water and wonder how long it would be before anyone found me if I ever fell in, or wonder when a crawdad was going to pinch my toe (we usually went across barefoot so we wouldn’t mess up our shoes). I always felt secure, though, when Anita was close by and took my hand. I did not worry about the rocks or the water or crawdads, or the possibility of disaster. I only trusted that she would watch out for me; and she always did.

Life for all of us contains many crossings where the possibility of disaster is only one misstep away; one more bad decision; staying too long; dating the wrong person; telling yourself one final time, ‘it’s only temporary; it won’t hurt anyone’, or ‘no one will ever know’. We could all tell many tales of close calls, only to be rescued by the hand of God just in the nick of time. Those ‘crossing’ places are common enough in life. We can carefully cross over, with the next destination ahead of us, the next part of life; or we can be careless, slip, and ruin everything. We may not be able to see what lies ahead, but we do have One who goes with us who has been there before us. He became one of us and suffered temptation, unanswered prayer and all the bits and pieces of life just like we do.

He knows what lies ahead. He knows how to cross those places. He knows how to avoid falling. He takes our hand when necessary and will sometimes just say, “Watch where you’re stepping. The rocks can be slippery.” Then when the way gets too treacherous, he takes our hand and leads us to the other side.

The dark waters of life can lead to catastrophe or destruction unless we put our trust in Christ, our Older Brother, who knows what to do, and loves us enough to guide us through those slippery places.

Thanks be to God.