𝕥𝕒𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕣𝕠𝕒𝕕

Robert Frost said,

"two roads diverged in a yellow wood

and sorry I could not travel both

and be one traveler, long I stood

and looked down both as far as I could

to where they bent in the undergrowth."

That poem has dwelled in my mind for a long time, maybe I have taken the road less traveled more often than I have taken the road more traveled.

I recently went to a county park for a walk and being me, I left the marked trail for a kinda marked one, and ending up walking for three hours as it meandered past a thick cypress swamp and as I walked, I encountered obstacles and little surprises like a bench in the undergrowth and a bridge. It was stunningly beautiful in there and I headed back as the sun started slipping towards the horizon. I was startled by encountering another person after I got back to the main trail, and she said was an avid hiker from another state. She said she was trying to get back to her car as she started tagging along, and I told her that I was heading that way. She said that we were heading in the wrong direction according to her Trail Guide app, and I assured her that we were indeed heading towards the entrance where our vehicles were parked. She stopped, lost in a moment of indecision and confusion. I remembered that my truck has a parking location app and I found it to allay her fear that she was being led back into the woods. It was a comical picture of my truck's location with me as an arrow in the middle of nowhere, but the arrow was heading towards the truck. She was relieved that she wasn't going to be lost after all, and I wondered how good her Trail Guide really was, which I think she was wondering too.

It made me think of how many people get lost on their own trail and can't find their way out. She was already slightly panicked when I encountered her and persuaded her that she was heading in the wrong direction, and she was about to realize that her trail app was useless in the woods. She said she has hiked all over the country with it and it has always worked. Sometimes we rely on things that take the place of our own senses so much that we don't know where we are or where we're heading. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West, but it doesn't help if we don't know where we are in relation to the sun. We have apps for everything now- banking, car service, ordering groceries, music, sending and receiving money, hiking apps, and the list goes on. Technology is shrinking our ability and desire to use our minds for storage like we used to.

That park is in a different county from where I live and I wouldn't normally be there. This hiker said she was in the area to care for her Mom, who was nearing her end of life and we talked about what a blessing it is to be with loved ones at the end. I prayed with her a bit at her car and she thanked me for leading her out of the woods because her app had failed. She said it was a miracle that I came along when I did because she thought she was going to have to spend the night in those woods. My Activity Guide app said I walked over 4 miles in there.

Being in the right place at the right time IS a miracle, so she nailed it without really knowing it. People use the word "miracle" without recognizing the fact that we encounter miracles every day.

If we start looking, we'll see miracles for what they are and not just "co-incidence" "happenstance" or "luck".

Because that's how God works.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬