Legend of the Cherokee Indian

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian
youth's rite of passage?

His father takes him into the forest,
blindfolds him and leaves him alone.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole
night and not remove the blindfold until the
rays of the morning sun shine through it.
He cannot cry out for help to anyone.

Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.
He cannot tell the other boys of this
experience because each lad must come
into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear
all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely
be all around him. Maybe even some human
might do him harm. The wind blew the grass
and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat
stoically, never removing the blindfold.
It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night, the sun
appeared and he removed his blindfold....
it was then that he discovered his
father sitting on the stump next to him.

He had been at watch the entire night,
protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone.
Even when we don't know it,
our Heavenly Father is watching over us,
sitting on the stump beside us.
When trouble comes, all we have
to do is reach out to Him.


Moral of the Story:
Just because you can't see God,
doesn't mean He is not there.