God loves big! He does not love when we deserve it; He loves all the time! He does not love with just words, but He loves with everything He has! He gave His son, His one and only Son, so that we could have a relationship with Him!

Now that’s a big love!

“Big” is a great word to describe my 4th of July experience. The fireworks were BIG, the mountain was BIG, The climb was Big, the view was Big, and the love we shared as a family was BIG!

We were in Tahoe Donner on the North shore of Lake Tahoe. There was a fireworks show down at Donner Lake, and we had been told the view was spectacular from the side of the mountain. We had been told where to go to find the trail, and where to park…but we had NOT been told how far the hike would be! After a delicious BBQ dinner, we loaded up the car with all of us, and headed out. There were 10 of us total, two young children, two elderly adults, and six adults in between. We got to the foot of the mountain where the trail head was, and we saw many other families, with the same, wonderful idea.  We excitedly exited the cars, grabbed two blankets, and followed the line up the trail head. The first few hundred steps only revealed a few more hundred steps. Then we looked up, and in front of us we saw nothing but a long trail! We walked on, still in great anticipation of the spectacular show that we would view. We walked on, and we walked on, and on and on and on! We walked on for a good 30 minutes, only to see that the trail was veering left and we were now going to hike up to the mountain side. We had come this far, so we were not going to turn back now! This was going to be a big adventure! After all, Papa is 83 and he was hiking it, and Grammie is 75 and she was hiking it too! The example of their big adventurous spirit was an encouragement to all of us! After a good 15 minutes more of hiking, we reached the mountain side where you could no longer take the trail. We walked over bushes, plants, rocks, and fallen tree logs. We decided it was best to allow Papa and Grammie to sit on one of the closest logs we found. My mom zipped up her puffy coat clear to her chin. While I had laughed at her earlier for bringing a puffy coat in July, I was now envious of her. They cuddled together as the wind picked up on the mountain side, and the sun began to go down. The rest of us went forward a bit more and found another log. We lifted the children over the top of it and sat down in anticipation of the fireworks show. And what a show it was!  I have watched many fireworks shows in my life, but I have never been on top of the fireworks themselves, looking down on them!