Trail Markers

Trail Markers

Devotions of an Outdoor Woman

John 14: verse 6 Jesus answered, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I sat on my horse, Chance, and stared at the trunk of the tree.  I was hoping the scar on the trunk was a trail blaze. The Forest Service uses a vertical line with a dot over it to mark the way on a trail.  This one was overgrown and indistinct.  There was no corresponding mark on the other side of the tree.  It was the first blaze I had seen in a long time but many trees have died and fallen over. This mark could be just a scar from a nearby tree falling and scraping this one.  I was afraid this tree was scarred but not blazed. 

 Here I was, lost.  I had made a big circle and planned to take a different trail back to the truck and trailer than the one I had used this morning.  I had been checking grass, weeds and cattle in the Elkhorns.  In the morning it had been cloudy so I did not see the mountain tops that may have guided me back in the afternoon.  I had planned to use an old abandoned trail on the way home hoping to cut 2 to 3 miles off the distance to the truck.  Now I was afraid I would have to backtrack several miles. Chance pawed the ground impatiently and shook his mane.  He believed we should continue.  The trail I was seeking was not on the map.

 The Bible verse came back to me.  Jesus is the Way.  He is the trail to Heaven and the Father. We Christians must be the trail markers.  Was I overgrown and unreadable?  Had life, responsibilities and time grown around the blaze Jesus had left on me obscuring the mark that should lead others to Him?  Had I lost my First Love?  The love of Jesus that would shine out to others?

I gave Chance his head and we continued for a ways down the ridge until I found another blaze.  This one was clear and bright, shining out from the dim timber.

Revelation: 2; 4&5  From the letter to the Church at Ephesus: Yet I hold this against you; You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen!  Repent and do the things you did at first.  If you do not repent, I will remove your lamp-stand from its place.

with pitch around the edges.  I also saw that there had been an old blaze beneath the new one.  The old blaze barely showed.  The tree had received a new touch from the trail crew.  It was again clear and easy to find. 

 Dear Jesus, please help me to return to my first love of you.  Help me to shine forth your love to others.  Your scars from the cross shine out to a lost world and are reflected on the scars we carry as blazes that show we belong to you.  Make us clear, shining blazes like lamp-stands in the forest showing the way to you. 

AMEN