9th July 2024
Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youths’ rite of Passage?
The father takes his young son into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.
The son is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun and shine through it.
He also 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 young boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises.
Wild beasts must surely be all around him in the forest.
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 appears and the young boy removes his blindfold.
After overcoming the fear, it was then that the young one discovers, his father is sitting on the stump next to him, He has been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
Like the young boy in the forest, we too must face our fears but we too are never alone.
Even when we don’t know it, God is watching over us and protecting us, sitting on the stump beside us.
Don’t be scared of the forest of life, of the sounds, of the noise, of the wild beasts & the fellow humans who may do you harm, be a Man & don’t take off your blindfold before dawn.
Just because you can’t see God, it doesn’t mean He’s not there!
Face your fears, the sounds of the jungle called life, Be a MAN and
Stay Blessed Forever.