The little face lit up in a grin. I tucked a basket through my arm and began to skip down the graveled driveway, steadying the wagon with its precious cargo behind me.
Nothing was extraordinary about the day. The gray sky was rimmed with looming clouds, heavy with rain and threatening to shower. The woods surrounding us were silent without so much as a chirp of a bird or the rustling of a leaf, and the air was motionless and still with the damp smell of late summer.
As I pressed forward to the meadow, an uneasy and restless feeling slowly grew inside of me until I became nervous. Endeavoring to reason away this strange and un-called for impression, I continued to pluck berries from leafy bushes lining along the driveway and placing them in my basket.
But just because I feel a bit edgy doesn’t mean anything, I told myself. Wandering through small thickets of brambles and clumps of persistent weeds, I stooped to find luscious blackberries under the dark green leaves of bushes partly hidden by tall weathered grass. Jonathan, still sitting in the wagon was not far away, playing with a wildflower he was saving for Mamma.
Maybe you should return back to the house. Feeling unsettled, I realized that this impression was becoming too hard to ignore. Just a few more berries… I told myself. And then we’ll go home.
I leaned forward, nearing the tree line with my back turned to Jonathan, intently reaching for the object of my gaze.
Suddenly a feeling of dread and apprehension intensified to such a level that I leapt out of the area with a cold fear that startled me. Any doubts that I had previously entertained, disappeared into thin air in the space of seconds. With no hesitation now, I tore through the short brush with a prayer for safety and strength on my lips.
My heart pounding, I dared not look behind me as I ran, pulling the wagon as Jonathan clutched his flower and the wheels rattled. I would feel no sense of safety until I and my little brother reached the house.
To this day, I do not know why such a feeling was impressed upon me, except that there was danger. I could only reason that God saw something that I did not, and instead of removing that danger, He called me to run from it.
Friends, don’t wait for temptation to be removed from your life - flee from it. The enemy seeks only to leave us lost and void of hope, crushed in his hands by the bonds of sin.
Our frail human reasoning cannot be compared with that of the divine. Resisting His voice - even if we don’t understand or can’t explain His commands - will only result in our loss, and His sorrow.
And when you cannot detect the slightest hint of danger on the horizon, do you trust God’s eyes to see it for you?
