Walking Blind
There are days when nothing you’ve ever learned in the past can tell you what to do in the moment.
It’s like you’re facing a new road, blindfolded.
When I was eighteen, my grandparents planned to move to Florida to live with my parents. They always came down, usually for a month or so, and during their last visit before the move, Grandma was talking to me in the living room. We were looking at my growing collection of Grace Livingston Hill books. This was one special thing we shared, our love for these old fashioned stories.
“You know why I really love them?” Grandma said. “They are relaxing stories, where everything works out, but they still remind me of truth. Like right here.”
She reached up and pulled down a book, flipped through it and pointed to a section. “These verses, they are just what I need right now. We’re planning to leave the place I grew up, raised my family. We’re moving to a new state– and it’s all a dark road. I don’t know how to navigate it. But God promises to lead us, to make the rough places smooth.”
And I will lead the blind
in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
and I do not forsake them.
I went into my room after our conversation and found the verses in my Bible, right there in Isaiah, and underlined them.
And this morning I opened that old Bible and there they were, underlined.
Today we are walking a road we don’t know. Wandering down paths we can’t see the end of. Believing that the God we serve will make the rough places smooth, that He will hold our hands and lead us around every corner and curve, every phone call, every decision, every hope.
And the darkness will turn to light before us, as we take each step.
He will not forsake us.
These verses have brought me a lot of insight and comfort over the last few years. I have a plaque positioned in a place where I have to read and ponder them several times daily! The depth of their Truth has never failed me–and yet recently it dawned on me that the word “forsaken” denotes a belonging. One does not forsake things– or keep from forsaking something that they do not care for or have possession of to begin with. That comforted me because it means I am His to begin with…being claimed first by Him and led– always– by a willing Guide. I know you know this comfort too. Love you.
Great story! I also really appreciate your take on Isaiah 42. It’s so important to remember that the Lord walks with us, never forsaking us, especially in this time of uncertainty and change.