The path maker
When it comes to walking, I often think the wilder, the better! Give me a craggy coastline or a windswept moor over a manicured park any day. But of course, I can only walk those places because they are not truly wild – someone has made a path or a road so that I don’t need to buy a machete or a chisel.
Usually we don’t notice the paths, we only notice when they aren’t there.
A few weeks ago, I was ambling down a shady footpath through bluebell woods in Cornwall. I asked the Lord to speak to me and my eyes were drawn to a muddy dip in the path ahead. Someone had carefully interlaced 12 sticks so that I wouldn’t sink. I found myself thinking about the path-maker and the Lord reminded me of this promise – that he will make our paths firm.
I nearly walked straight over those sticks with seeing them, without observing the care that had gone into making my path firm. I believe the Lord was gently helping me see that over the past tough years, he has made a path for me in ways that I sometimes barely noticed and that he will make a firm way for me in the days and months ahead. Life constantly brings change, much of which we cannot control, but God’s promise is that he will make a firm way for us to walk through it.
Like so many promises, there is a condition attached but it could hardly be more attractive for us - the Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him.
What does it mean for us to delight in the Lord? For me, it means a new orientation - deliberately enjoying all God’s love and glory, his kindness and goodness, his faithfulness and friendship. It means living life and faith in a way where you taste it instead of just swallowing it. It means letting thanks bubble up because all that is good is a gift. It means remembering to see the trees unfurling, to hear the spring bird song and most of all to turn our hearts to the one who loves us best.
As I do that, I find myself more able to trust the promise that God will make my paths firm. I like it that the Psalmist is honest enough to expect us to stumble. But the promise is big enough to hold us through the stumbling so we don’t fall. My nephew Josh and his wife Jenny adore little Ruth in the photo – they don’t want her to tumble.. Does our heavenly father love us any less? He will make our paths firm and when we stumble, he won’t let us fall.
