RIO DE JANEIRO _ The Christ the Redeemer statue is the symbol of Rio. It defines the city the same way the Golden Gate Bridge defines San Francisco or the Hollywood sign defines greater Los Angeles or the Space Needle defines Seattle.
Seeing the statue was one of my prime goals when traveling to Rio. This is no big surprise. It's a bucket list thing. It's virtually mandatory.
After a 30-minute van ride from downtown, I climbed winding stairs for five minutes and arrived at the top of the Corcovado Mountain and gazed into the sky hoping to glimpse the iconic statue.
And couldn't see a thing.
Even Christ the Redeemer gets lost in the clouds sometimes. The statue was shrouded in a thick fog.
About 100 other tourists stood at the base of the statue. All squinted into the gray sky, waiting for the savior's appearance. The wind blew fiercely. Clouds moved rapidly.
After a 90-second wait, the statue emerged from the fog. A roar rose from the crowd. This routine continued for the next 30 minutes. The statue vanished, and the crowd grew cranky, and then the winds rolled back the fog and the statue flashed back into view and the crowd cheered. It was a mountaintop revival service.
Standing there in the thick mist, I thought of a passage from the first chapter of Acts, a book in the New Testament. The passage comes immediately after Jesus delivers his final message to his followers. "And when Jesus had said these things," Acts 1:9 says, "as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."
The statue is 98-feet tall. Engineers and sculptors crafted Christ the Redeemer from concrete and soapstone. It's big, really big, but there's still beauty in the details. The face and the hands and the feet are realistic, almost lifelike. The statue is a gentle yet powerful presence.
I'm hoping to return on a sunny, clear day to enjoy a full view of the Atlantic Ocean.
I'll long remember the cheering for Christ on this cloudy day on top of Corcovado Mountain.
