My question has to do with what The Climber may have said before going over the rock area. We have been wondering if he may have felt a hesitancy within of going there but did not recognize it as the spirit of God checking him. Do you remember him saying anything to this effect?
One of the first stages of grief is the shock of what happened. We couldn't believe it and we were right there seeing and hearing it happen. The next stage is wondering if there was something that we could have done about it. We all had to deal with that. Should we have felt something of God's leading, did The Climber sense something, were we careless? All these questions and dozens more like that have either gone through our minds or we have talked about them together. The answers are: Nobody was being unsafe or lax and nobody knows why The Climber was taken and not one of us or why not more of us. It is human nature to want to have control of our world, to have an answer for everything. We would feel more secure to have it all figured out - why do bad things happen to good people, how can a loving God allow... and all that kind of thing. There is no use of such reasoning.
God himself would be a mystery except that He chose to reveal Himself to us. Still, He leaves most things beyond our control and asks us to trust Him and seek his wisdom and guidance. The mountains are wild, uncontrollable places, right? So to be in them is risky and that is part of the intrigue with being up there, even camping. To see the wild beauty and know you are just a visitor in a wonderful part of god's creation is part of learning to trust God in things you really have no solid control over. That is life too. People die on our streets in our civilized country, in accidents and unpredictable circumstances. We really don't have control over anything - except that we can choose to worship and trust the eternal God. At the end of my understanding, I can choose to trust and I can worship the God of whom it is said "He works all things together for good for those who love god and are called according to his purpose" (and it goes on to say that purpose is to shape us through it all to make us into his likeness or character - Romans 8:28, 29)
I know The Climber believed in God and in this process of trusting when we cannot figure things out. I can't offer much in the way of figuring things out. I have grown comfortable with the idea that God and life are too big. How I make it through is to God's credit and faithfulness, not my intelligence or hard work. In a few short years we will be in a whole new stage of life with God and I believe these questions won't exist anymore. Our tears will be wiped away. We'll join those who've gone before us. Now is our time to make choices - to trust God and let go of our need to control things. I don't mean to be preaching but sharing our common journey of faith. I see the heroes of the Bible struggling with these same issues and believing though they did not see things work out the way they believed God had promised. That shows up in Hebrews 11 and in the story of Job.