{"id":1058,"date":"2021-09-28T08:07:12","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1058"},"modified":"2021-09-28T08:07:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T12:07:12","slug":"taking-the-cold-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/28\/taking-the-cold-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking the Cold Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the late 1960s, Dr. James Reddick \u2013 a Seattle dentist and experienced mountaineer \u2013 took his 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son on a hike up the steep slopes of Mount Rainier, the volcanic peak that towers above the city. 

It was Memorial Day weekend, a time late enough on the calendar for hikers not to be overly worried about winter storms. 

But this family mountaineering adventure became a nightmare.

A sudden blinding snowstorm with hurricane-force winds trapped Reddick and his children against the side of the mountain.  Their visibility gone and their body temperatures dropping, Reddick began digging furiously with his aluminum mess kit, carving out a kind of cave in the snow.

He put David and Sharon into their sleeping bags and zipped them up, then tried to figure out a way to seal up the entrance to the shelter. 

As Tim Stafford tells the story, Reddick fixed a tarp by the opening.  But the wind kept blowing it away. 

Finally Reddick lay down across the opening, using his own body weight to secure the tarp.

Forty-eight hours passed before rescuers saw the edge of a backpack protruding from the snow.  Digging deep into the mound before them, they uncovered the two children, warm and alive. 

But James Reddick didn\u2019t make it.  In the words of one of the rescuers, he had \u201ctaken the cold spot,\u201d using his own back as one of the walls of the protective shelter.

One of Jesus\u2019 more poignant self-descriptions is found in John 10:7:  \u201cI am the gate for the sheep.\u201d  To this day, when Palestinian shepherds have to spent the night out in the open with their flocks, they typically build a temporary shelter called a sheepfold. 

They leave a single opening on one side \u2013 the \u201cgate\u201d \u2013 and spend the night propped up or lying in that narrow space.  They deliberately place themselves between the flock and the dangers of the world beyond.

What are you facing today that feels threatening \u2013 what worry or fear or sorrow or uncertainty?

Here\u2019s what we can know for sure:  You won\u2019t be facing it alone.  There is Someone who lies between you and the worst things you can imagine.

That\u2019s why Jesus is called the Good Shepherd.

He takes the cold spot.<\/em>
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In the late 1960s, Dr. James Reddick \u2013 a Seattle dentist and experienced mountaineer \u2013 took his 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son on a hike up the steep slopes of Mount Rainier, the volcanic peak that towers above the city.  It was Memorial Day weekend, a time late enough on the calendar for hikers not to be overly worried about… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[339],"class_list":["post-1058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-i-am-the-gate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1060,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions\/1060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}