And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown’. And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’
From God Knows by Minnie Louise Haskins (1857-1957)
The above quote comes from a collection of poems called The Desert and was quoted by King George VI in his Christmas broadcast in 1939 and is engraved on the entrance to the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle.
I remember as a child being scared of the dark, all sorts of monsters lay in wait for me and even now I am not totally at ease in the dark. Looking back over the years I have been at St. Martin’s I can also see that in the past I have I been desperate for God to shine His light on my path.
Partly because I wanted to know if I was doing the right or wrong, always seeking some kind of affirmation, and to be reassured that everything was going to be OK.
If you have ever played the game of being blindfolded and being led by somebody else, you will have some idea of the challenge the quote gives. Can you and I really trust God’s love and care and step into the darkness? If that journey takes us to something other than “a known way” does our faith suffer? In our mind we know God will never leave us, He will always love us and there is nothing that can separate us but being honest with you, I think I am at the stage of putting my hand in God’s and letting Him lead, but having the other hand on a torch which I would like to switch on when things got difficult! However, I hope you and I can learn that God is absolutely trustworthy in all His promises and is with us whatever happens in the future.
Yours in Christ
Martin
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