Before and Behind

The path forward was slightly obscured by overhanging broom and gorse, heavy with blossom. I pushed past and continued. Soon I saw my neighbour approaching, walking his lovely Alsatian, Jake. He paused to put Jake on the lead and I called out that there was no need for that, but he replied that a stag had just leapt across the path behind me. I was oblivious to its presence.

Life is like that. We can’t always see the way ahead, and sometimes the things obscuring our vision are pleasant and lovely. We can be stopped in our tracks, easily distracted by something attractive and then failing to continue moving forward at a steady pace. (I hear my dear dad’s voice counselling, however, that I take time to smell the roses. So I do recognise that there are times for pausing as well as times for pressing on.)

Things happen behind us of which we are totally unaware. Perhaps we have occasioned them; perhaps they just happen. My daughter once skied down a mountain oblivious that as she reached the end of the run, an avalanche which would claim a couple of victims was just beginning at the top of that slope. 

Paul wrote that we see through a glass darkly. We think we are aware of everything going on around us but in reality we are sometimes blissfully unaware, sometimes fatally unaware. How are we to traverse this pilgrimage safely?

Eyes on God. Focus on the Saviour Jesus. Only as we stick in close to God can we be assured that whatever transpires in our day today, he is with us. He knows the end from the beginning. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is our hiding place, the source of our strength and joy, and the peace that passes all understanding. 

So I will step out into my crowded day aware that I may not always see the way ahead, and that things may indeed transpire behind my back of which I am unaware. But I step out with my hand in Jesus’, trusting him to get me through everything (even my dental appointment...)