In the late 1800’s a Montana fur trapper is running out of supplies during a particularly brutal Rocky Mountain winter. Growing desperate, he realizes he must make his way down to the nearest town to buy food or he will not survive. He sets out through an early morning blizzard and trudges all day through waist-deep snow. At dusk, he can just make out the lights of the town in the distance, but as nightfall approaches he finds himself at the bank of a wide river that separates him from the safety and salvation of the village.
The river appears to be iced over, but it is so wide that he fears it will not hold his weight all the way across. Nevertheless, knowing he will not survive the night, he starts out across the ice. Step-by-step he slowly works his way toward the center, expecting at every footfall that the ice will give way and the frigid, swift waters of the river will pull him under. As he nears the center of the river, he hears the ice begin cracking beneath his feet. Panicking, he falls to his knees and begins to crawl through the blowing snow, hoping by distributing his weight the ice may hold. Again the ice creaks and groans and now, his heart racing and his hands and feet growing numb with cold, he lays our prostrate on the ice and inches his way, praying to God that the ice will hold, while in the distance the sounds of music from the town’s saloon begs him on.
Suddenly, he hears a great noise coming from behind him. The ice beneath him begins to shudder from a loud, pounding cadence. Shocked, he sits up to see two great quarter horses pulling a wagon heaped with coal, charging across the ice under the whip of a stoutly driver. They barely miss running over him in the darkness, and he watches in stunned silence as they finish the crossing and disappear into the glow of the town on the other side.
What the trapper did not know was that the winter had been so severe that the river had frozen six feet thick.
God’s word is surer than thick ice under our feet. God’s word tells us that if we will trust him, if we will believe his promises and walk life’s journey by faith and not by sight, he will always take care of us, always defend us, always provide for us, always work all things for our good.
Are you living your life so unsure of God’s promises that you end up crawling through life in fear? How different would your life be if you believed, really believed that because of his great love for you, the ice under your feet was six feet thick?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. I all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:6-9