My passion for stories comes from my mother reading to me every night before I went to sleep. I don’t think she realized at the time just how much they impacted me.
The headboard on my bed was a bookcase that was completely full of books. I had many of the little Golden Books, Peanuts comic books, a mother goose book full of nursery rhymes, and a book with old fairy tales. To me they were gateways to other fantastic worlds of fun and adventures. Each night, I picked what I wanted her to read to me. But there was one story that always upset me: Hansel and Gretel. Just in case you’re not familiar with this story, Hansel and Gretel were children who laid down bread crumbs so they could find their way out of the forest. Unfortunately for them, birds ate their bread crumbs. No crumbs; no way out. It bothered me that they were lost in the woods. I would ask my mom: “Why didn’t they use something else to find their way back? Didn’t they know the birds would eat them?”
My mom never had a good answer for me other than it wasn’t real story anyway. Nonetheless, this caused me to have the fear of being lost. But it didn’t stop my desire to explore places I didn’t know.
As a kid, I wanted to know to where a path or trail led to and what would I see there. In my mind, I envisioned hidden castles, a lost playground, or maybe some dinosaurs or mystical creatures that were hiding from the world. It was very rare that I had a real chance to explore one. Usually nobody wanted to go with me and I didn’t want to go myself and get lost. One day I finally had my chance. I was at a friend’s house when I noticed a little path that went up the ridge behind their house. Naturally I talked her and her little brother into following it. Was I worried about getting lost? Nope. Since we were climbing up the ridge, I could always look down and see their house. I was having a great adventure until I fell and tangled with a barbed wire fence. Got a tetanus shot out of that.
As an adult, I like to drive down strange roads and see where they lead to. While I don’t expect to find castles and dinosaurs, I hope to see some beautiful views and hopefully find a shortcut I didn’t previously know. Does that mean I no longer have a fear of getting lost. Nope. Not at all. Fortunately, I learned a trick to help with that: I look for landmarks. For example, years ago I had a friend show me the back way she took to get to where we worked. As she drove, I looked for schools, stores, billboard signs, houses with fences or large garages, and even railroad tracks.
“For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6 (KJV)
Unlike bread crumbs, the landmarks I look for are things that do not easily change or go away. Rest assured Our Lord is the same. He is eternal and unchanging, so we can always trust and rely on Him.
I even use landmarks when I give directions. Years ago, when we were still living at our house on Pedigo Road, a man came to the door. He was new to the area and didn’t know to get to Emory Road. I told him to go south and veer right at the stop sign and stay on the road. If he drove by an elementary school, he had taken the wrong right. Then I told him he would pass a little white church and go through some hair-pin curves. Next there would be a straight away before he got to an intersection and then a brick church would be on his left. He was rather speechless for a second. Bless his heart. I hope he didn’t get lost.