Reflection #9

We have recently returned from visiting our daughter and her husband in Anchorage, Alaska. They are stationed there at the air base. During our visit my daughter and I went on a rafting trip with some of the wives from their squadron.

Since it stays light so long during the summer, our trip began at 8:30 p.m. At the end of our trip, at 1:00 in the morning, our guide announced that she did not feel confident about rowing us all to shore. The current of the river and the weight of all of us and the raft caused her to doubt her ability to get us to land. She suggested that the five of us walk across a fairly wide stretch of relatively shallow water to land. As we got out of the raft, she told us to walk where the “ripples” were, then she took the raft around to the shore. The current was swift in this glacier river and the rocks were quite slippery. I fell in the water and one of the women became quite cold and apprehensive. All of us had very cold, wet feet. It was not the best way to end a rafting trip—especially in Alaska!

With a more expert guide, perhaps this incident could have been avoided. Nevertheless, it taught me an important spiritual lesson. As I reflected about our experience, I thought how much more confident we would have felt if our guide had walked with us and encouraged us as we went through this “river of difficulty.” I remembered the wonderful verse in Isaiah that assures us that when we allow the Lord to be our guide, He will always be with us. We are not exempt from going through deep waters, but we can be secure in the knowledge that God is with us – and that is a great encouragement to endure the “rivers” we must cross.

For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never forsake you.”

Love in Christ,

Cynthia Heald