I’ll never forget the feeling of dread that began to wash over me when I realized that we might not be able to find our way out of the woods before nightfall. Sarah and I had only been married for a couple years and we would often spend our off days exploring waterfalls in the North Georgia mountains. We arrived at a National Park late one afternoon and began the five mile hike to a waterfall, knowing we had just enough time to make it back to our car before dark. But we did not plan for Sarah to roll her ankle as we began our return trip. And it was bad. Sarah is a fighter like no one else I know, but still, walking was painful and slow. Darkness was quickly beginning to envelop us. The path wasn’t always clear as we hobbled along. When the tall pines became less dense, the trail would vanish. All sense of direction was lost. We had no phones, no water, no flashlight. Just the clothes on our backs. I’m not afraid of the dark and I’m not afraid of the woods, but without a tent and a roaring fire, I wasn’t a fan of the combination. What I needed most at that moment, was LIGHT. Light to reveal the path and show me the way forward. And I didn’t have it.
Psalm 119:105 says that God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We will walk through the dark valleys of life and have to endure long nights. But the Word of God illuminates our path, guides our every step, prevents us from stumbling, and reveals the Way in which we should walk.
Eventually, surrounded by darkness, we stumbled out of the woods and collapsed into our vehicle.
I’d never felt more relieved.
It’s a foolish thing to navigate the dark without the light.
Ps 119:105; Pv 6:22-23; Isa 30:21; John 8:12; 2 Pet 1:19; I Cor 13:12; Rev 22:5
