My childhood was spent on a tea plantation, a time I wistfully look back to as a utopia. The school we studied in catered solely to the children of the employees of the tea plantation. The newspaper came in a day late, there were no telephones for a 10-mile radius, and we hadn't even heard of the internet in our part of the world. We lived in the back of beyond and couldn't be happier about it!
The monsoons were heavy and relentless. During our first monsoon season here, it seemed like the rains would never stop and we would be stuck inside forever. Then by the next year and the next, we knew it was only a matter of time before the sun came out again.
My brother and I were cooped up at home for weeks on end, but some of our best memories were from that ‘locked-in’ time of our lives, watching the rain drop down our windows and the wind howling in the nearby woods. We would spin stories and dream big dreams and try to entertain each other with stories that our little imaginations could weld.
My parents insisted that we make the best use of the bright days and get outdoors, though given a chance, I would have loved to curl up in the warm sunshine and read a book. We set off on our escapades and wandered around the woods, caught frogs and tadpoles, splashed in puddles and lost our way trekking, ate wild berries, got bitten by leeches and scurried home when we heard the bushes rustling (there was always a wild boar in the vicinity).
We got lost plenty of times and while I whimpered about being left to the mercy of the wild elephants or being gored by boars or worse still, missing our curfew hour, it inevitably fell to my brother to find a way back home.
Sometimes stricken by fear or by sheer force of habit, I used to offer suggestions and offer to find a way home or try a new shortcut. And my little brother sometimes in exasperation, sometimes with infinite patience, and sometimes with short-lived impatience told me to trust him. More often than not, our delays and detours saved us a lot of trouble and kept us from a lot of harm, including crossing paths with a herd of elephants (true story!)
So the kid brother toughened up and watched out for me, helping me over the tough terrain, clearing the undergrowth, making sure there were not too many leeches, all the while telling me that we will make it home on time. To his credit, not once did he play a prank on me and disappear, else given my sense of direction, I still would be roaming the moors.
I could set off on yet another adventure because I knew I could trust my brother to walk with me and find our way home; my parents could cheerfully wave us goodbye, knowing that we would treasure these memories and live to tell the tale!
No one may know of the lonely valley each of us is trudging through or the mountains we are facing or what is rustling our peace or what stretches out endlessly before us or our ticking timelines... but God does.
Maybe He will take us on a different path from the one we are used to, maybe there will be unforeseen obstacles, maybe there will be delays and seemingly unanswered prayers… but He is keeping us out of harm’s way and leading us along the path He wants us to take. He will get us there, in His perfect time!
He is worthy of our trust, of our faith as we fling ourselves into the arms of the One who has measured the sky between his thumb and little finger. He has seen us through before and will see us through again.
If my kid brother didn't scurry away at the slightest sign of trouble, will the God of the universe, the One who has our names engraved on the palm of His hand cast us away?
He’s got us!
The Creator of the Universe, the one who flung the stars in their place and arranged the constellations, the One who scoops the oceans in the palm of His Hand, who has put all the earth's dirt in one of His baskets, weighed each mountain and hill… He has got us.
When the next adventure in faith beckons, may we will willingly follow the Way Maker and the Promise Keeper. He’s got us!
