It might as well have been a dream.

A stair case winds up into the sky.

A ball of light dispels the pre-dawn darkness.

My best friend stands by my side.

Invisible currents carry autumn leaves through a sea of golden light.

A photographer’s heaven!

But it wasn’t a dream, of course.

Instead of sleeping in, we were out soaking in a magical morning. Instead of the sun greeting us, the sun was greeted by us. Instead of enjoying the warmth of the indoors, we were bracing the best of a blustery October morning in the outdoors. When does one awake on a mountain top, in the middle of the wilderness first thing in the morning, above the treetops at a perfect spot for landscape photography?

Never. It was all very atypical. Quite out of the ordinary! So it leaves one to wonder, how in the world did we end up here?!

It didn’t happen suddenly. It wasn’t because we woke up one sunny morning and decided to just be there.

It started a year ago when I saw a photo in a photo book. The caption was something like, “Bickle Knob Observation Tower, WV”.

The location was plugged into my database of places worth exploring.

A trip was planned, and this location was found to be along the route.

The time of arrival was carefully determined.

Our scheme was carefully executed.

Decision after decision was made with our goal in mind.

The result? We were escorted handsomely into a photographer’s heaven!

Exhilarating experiences. The worst of nightmares. They don’t often happen exclusive of a trail of mini-decisions.

I read two verses this morning that I thought were quite interesting in context of each other: “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord…” (I Chronicles 10:13) and “So David waxed greater and greater: for the Lord of hosts was with him.” (I Chronicles 11:9).

Wondering how in the world did you ever end up somewhere?

It would be worth our while to think about all the little choices that have gotten us there.