Never Alone!

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth’s rite of passage? Read on dear friends. We hope you will find it interesting and at the same time, learn something important from it.

The young Indian’s father takes him into the forest blindfolded…and leaves him…alone.

The young Indian is required to sit on a stump the whole night, and he is commanded not to take off the blindfold until the ray of sun shines through it. He is there all by himself. 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. Each lad must come into his own manhood.

The boy was terrified…could hear all kinds of noise. Beasts were all around him. Maybe even some human would hurt him. The wind blew the grass and earth. And it shook his stump. But he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could be a man.

Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he saw his father, sitting on the stump next to him…at watch…the entire night. Finally, after he won his manhood, he realized that he was never alone.

Dear Christian friends, even when we do not know it, our Father is always with us.

We may be thrown into our fiery furnace. But know – be assured – that Jesus will be there, walking around with us and so, the fire will not scorch us.

We may be thrown into our own lion’s den. Our guardian angel will be there and shut the lion’s mouths.

We may have to walk through own shadow of the valley of death. We need not be afraid for our heavenly Father walks with us.

Like the Cherokee Indian youth, we may have to sit on a stump the whole night. But we know that our almighty God will be sitting on the stump with us.

Source: The Lord’s Trumpet, Vol. XXII No. 3

(March 2007) p. 23