Depths of the Dale

For a second December running, I find myself in the Yorkshire Dales addressing fifty teenagers on a New Year Christian camp. Last year, I spoke on some mountains of scripture; this year, rather unimaginatively, I shall talk about some Old Testament valleys: Hinnom, Elah, Dry Bones and Baca.

We sometimes speak of mountaintops and hillsides as being points of a Christian journey where all is well, and lovely and fine, but as old Len Cookson used to preach when I was a child: “there is no growth on the mountain”. The valleys, like the Shadow of Death’s, are sometimes dark, scary and lonely, but their soils are rich and their pastures lush. We grow more in the dark depths of the dale than looking down from the fabulous felicity of the fells.

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing. Psalm 65:13