God is here!

Life is extremely difficult for many of us. Watching the news will affirm the fact that we are all suffering right now.  Jobs are scarce, crime is on the rise and health is always a personal problem.  As we look into the future we all are a bit anxious.  Even sharing our voices in the election process has not soothed the fears we have.  We know that our world is suffering and that there is pain all around us. 

Are you frightened?  At times I am.  I wonder what the future will hold and how I will face it.  Will I have the tools I need to face it?  Will I be required to live through some difficult times or are we in the end times?  Questions upon questions flow through our minds and like little children we find tears rolling down our cheeks and fear flooding our souls.

Darlene sent me a wonderful e-mail today.  I read it and felt refreshing tears flow down my cheek. Since I have a heritage of Black Foot Indian in me, I was especially touched.  I hope you too will find comfort in the fact that this Cherokee ritual may be a reflection of God.

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youths' rite of Passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him an leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.


He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.
The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him . Maybe even some human might do him harm.

The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.
It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.


He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

 
 
Moral of the story:     Just because you can't see God,  Doesn't mean He is not there.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."

God loves you,

Debbie