New Paths

I was walking along a quiet country road on a mellow day in June. Life was all out of focus and my nerves were jangling every time anything near me moved. The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds and quite suddenly the clouds seemed to be winning. It got dark very quickly and I diverted my trek through a seldom used pasture instead of the long way home on the road.

I hadn't gone very far in the pasture when the sun made reappearance and I slowed my headlong dash for shelter to a more leisurely walk. As I came up over a knoll in the pasture I noticed a worn-looking but overgrown path leading off at a slight angle to the one I was on. The sun was out, the day was warm, and I thought "Why not? I changed direction once again onto this new path.

It ran for some distance and then, much to my dismay, disappeared under a seemingly impenetrable hedgerow. Humph! Now I'd have to turn back I thought my earlier mood returning with a vengeance. Some adventure this turned out to be. Oh well! It seemed that was the way my life was going right now. New paths, followed by dead-ends. What was it that reverend had said? Oh ya if we want to find peace follow a new path. Well so much for that, this "new path" led exactly where all the others had-nowhere. I turned around to retrace my steps back to the pasture.

A sound behind me made me turn and look again at the hedge. Was it still as dense as it had been? Maybe not! Then the afternoon stillness was shattered by a sort of groaning, whooshing sound as the ground in front of my feet began to move and shift. Then a huge cross rose before me and as it did the hedgerow was parted by it's horizontal bar. The cross was enormous and seemed to glow and pulsate with a light that was everywhere but I couldn't pin down the source. I looked around to find out if any other people had seen this apparition. There was no one anywhere in sight. Then a disembodied voice that seemed to come from everywhere spoke “I am the way the truth and the life, no one will come to the Father but by Me". "Enter my beloved child and find rest and peace". With that a door slid open in the base of the cross and I went through it to see the other side. As I stepped away from the portal it soundlessly closed behind me and the whole apparition disappeared without a trace. I did search for a way back to the other side of the hedge but it was as thick from this side as the other. There was no way back...

I heard sounds that stirred old memories, the gentle tinkle of a wind chime in a soft breeze, the soothing sigh of wind in among the pine branches... Wait a minute there were no trees or wind chimes here! But the sounds were there , still, and they were having an affect on me, my spirit, once so troubled and heavy was now getting light, like the now invisible cross. As I listened I could hear a brook or stream nearby but I could not see it. I looked down at my feet and there the path had reappeared. It didn't seem to go very far but I now wanted to follow it and learn what was here. As I walked along the path the part I couldn't see came into view, and the sounds I had heard from back there grew louder and louder. New sounds joined them and I could hear children laughing and playing. A voice was calling for the children, who I could hear but not see, to come home now for a story. The voice sounded familiar and I went towards the summons just as I suppose the children did, as I drew nearer to the voice the path rounded a corner and I skidded to a halt. There in a fuzzy edged clearing was my grandmother's house, complete with swing, back porch, and rocking chair where mom sat to read to us.

The stories were always from a book that talked about Jesus and His disciples and all the adventures they had when Jesus was on earth. As an adult looking at the scene I now knew that the book was the Bible. The longer I watched the more details became clear, a spot on the porch where I used to sit to listen, the way the rocker complained when mom sat in it to read. The voice, so hauntingly familiar was mom's of course and I stood transfixed as my sister, brother, and I, children in the scene, sat to listen again to the story of Jesus birth.

The scene began to fade but it had started me thinking about things I hadn't thought about in years. As I contemplated what I had just seen I continued my walk down this enchanted path. I really wasn't paying much attention to where I was going and when I looked up again there was a rock wall ahead of me. Time was out of joint now so nothing frightened me any more.

I approached the wall and found, without surprise, a portal which had no light behind it or clue about what lay within. As I neared the door, I could hear sounds of animals, farm animals, and upon entering found myself in some sort of barn. There was a couple bent over a wooden structure and the woman seemed to be very young. Perhaps not a couple after all but a man and his daughter? Between them I could see nothing of what was in the hay because there again was the same light that had shone from the cross when I had entered this sphere. And once again as I observed it became clear to me as if Someone was speaking to my heart without words that the source of the light was also the place to go for solace. As I came nearer to the scene I realized that I was witnessing firsthand the birth of the baby my Mom was reading to us about. But the woman, who must be Mary, seemed so young. Then the realization came, I had just assumed she was a mature adult. As my senses settled down the scene and the "cave" swirled and dissolved into the outside brightness of the day.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the light and I found that once again the path seemed to lead only a few feet before disappearing from my view. It occurred to me that the new path never seemed to lead anywhere until I followed it to where I could see. Then it led on to another point that was hidden only moments before. If I would only walk to where I could see then I could see more, if I did not trust enough to walk at all then this path led nowhere just like all the others.

I began walking again and another turn in the path led to a glen with a church. The sounds now were from a different time in my life and the newer memories were not as calming to my spirit. There was a song playing faintly with a melody that was barely discernable. I was attracted to the music by a will greater than my own. As I came nearer I started to understand the words... "Rock of Ages cleft for me let me hide myself in Thee". Finally a place to hide and rest and recover! But not without a price, as I would soon see.

The church began to dwindle and a hill materialized in its place. This was a barren place, a sorrowful place, a place where I had been many years ago but to which I never willing came. I was crushed by the weight on my heart and fell on the ground sobbing. As I continued to survey the events taking place before me, a crowd could be heard. They were loud and angry with venom and hatred in their voices. I wanted to run back down the path from whence I'd come but as I turned to go the path was no longer visible behind me. A command compelled me to stay and witness the completion of the story which I had seen begun only moments before. While all this chaos was going on within me the crowd was getting closer and their screams and jeers became audible. "The King of Kings, Hah" Crucify him" "We have no king but Caesar". The throng finally came into sight with Roman soldiers leading the way and three men with crosses on their backs following behind. Then came a man under heavy guard with no cross on his back. It was obvious that the man with no cross was the one to whom the crowd's hatred and venom was directed.

He drew near to, and bent over by my head and whispered "I'm doing this for you, so you can have peace and rest". I was unable to contain the grief and agony it caused within me to hear those words, spoken so gently, from a man whose body was so twisted and broken from being mistreated. Then the soldiers grabbed him and threw him on the ground. They had huge spikes and mallets which they used to nail this man to a cross. When they had raised him up and dropped the cross into a special slot intended for the purpose of holding the cross erect he was now suspended between earth and heaven. He looked down from His vantage point and spoke to me again. "I love you" he said "that's why I'm here". "Do not be sad and weep, this is victory".

The spectacle faded from my sight and was replaced with the church again. The song was still being sung only now I understood the message with my heart. I went to the door of the church and pulled it open. The voices were not human but angelic! The choir was not people but angels and there were so many I couldn't count them all! If these beings were able to deliver the news that I could hide in the rock of ages then who was I to feel uneasy?

I stood within the walls of the church and cried out to Jesus that I needed a place to hide. The lessons of the afternoon were spinning inside my head. I needed rest more than anything just now. One of the angels moved along side of me and laid his hand on my shoulder. I began to feel a deep lethargy come over me and found I could no longer keep my eyes open. The angel gently lowered me to the floor and pillowed my head as I drifted into a deep effortless sleep. As I slept the dreams were colorful and strong. Visions of a new earth with many beautiful gardens and homes. The feelings that accompanied these dreams were satisfying. The need to be loved unconditionally was fulfilled. The knowledge of never having to be alone again and lonely without a companion became a beacon to me. I don't know how long I slept and dreamed but when I awoke I was refreshed and ready to resume my journey.

As I left the church in the glen the path began to ascend and grow narrower. I had not gone very far when it leveled off and grew wide and grassy. I had reached some kind of a plateau and the vista before my eyes was breathtaking. None of the land seemed familiar but it was more beautiful than any I had ever seen. I turned and looked the other direction and in the distance I could see the hedgerow I had come through to get here.

How long ago that seemed now and how far away it looked. This was turning into a fine adventure. As I was watching the view there was a sound behind me. I whirled around, in a panic, half afraid of what I might find and half angry that my solitude would now be broken. I was looking eye to eye with Jesus!!

He called me to sit with Him, and like the fishermen of long ago I sat to listen to whatever He had to teach me. He told me that the path I was on would lead to eternal life. I questioned why I would want to live forever if I didn't even want to live this life? He took my hand and spoke to me ever so gently saying "The new path you took today will change how you feel about this life." "This path will show you the way to unconditional acceptance, with all your faults, shortcomings and all your fears." At last I understood the new path I had finally taken had led me to the sweetest place of all... the new path led me home!! PTL!