My Father in Heaven is Perfect

Being a natural loner at heart, a weekend of intense authentic fellowship left me yearning for some alone time with God.  Since we were in a deep valley in the mountains, the most logical place to go for that was up.  Waking before dawn, I climbed back up the winding road that descended to our camp.  When I reached the top, I still didn’t have the view I wanted, so I started to climb up the remaining couple hundred feet to the top of the nearest hill.  This is where things got interesting.

The steep hillside was covered in loose shale, and for every step I took forward it seemed I slid two or three back.  I strained to reach branches and roots to hold onto any bit of progress I made.  And then my eyes spotted something that made all the difference.  It would be an exaggeration to call it a path.  It was more like a succession of tiny foot and hand holds snaking across the slope.  It must have been created by deer or goats, but that morning it seemed to be just for me.  With solid rock beneath my feet, I soon found myself standing on top of the peak just in time to watch the sunrise and have that worship time my heart desired.

I pulled my Bible out of my pocket and read our verse of focus for that weekend.  Psalm 23 looked a little different in the small Bible I had borrowed for the plane trip.  Yet something in the wording this time caught my heart in a way I had never perceived it before.  “He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.” (verse 3, NLT)  I was still catching my breath from my steep struggle up the loose rockslide and the welcome discovery of a “right path” had saved me from wasted efforts and possible injury.

Waves of gratitude washed over me as I realized that God had been guiding me to right paths my whole life.  All the pain and grief I had experienced in the past had been the results of my wandering away from the path He had created for me.  As far off course and into the rough as I had found myself at times, He had faithfully and lovingly pursued me and guided me back to safety.   I suddenly realized that any progress I had made in my life had not been my own doing.  It was all God’s effort, love and guidance that had brought me this far.  The only thing I have left to live for is bringing honor to His name!  Our God of love will go to any length to find us and guide us back to the solid ground of His path.

For wandering children like us, that’s very good news!

Raleigh Clough