Blaze to Blaze

by Macy Johnson

“Make levels paths for your feet

and take only ways that are firm.”

(Proverbs 4:26 NIV)

 

I recently camped at George L. Smith State Park near Twin City, Georgia. It surrounds a 412-acre pond filled with stately cypress trees which reminded my husband, Jeff, of the lakes he fished as a boy in Louisiana.

 

Our campsite had a path that led to the water. We launched our kayak and scanned the trees for a yellow blaze. The yellow trail promised to take us along the shore, weaving in between the ghostly trees.

 

The regal cypress trees were dangerously close together on the trail, so we took our paddles apart in order to navigate using the halves as oars, like a canoe. All was calm and serene until it wasn’t. We suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a grove with no blazes nailed to a tree. We were lost! Jeff suggested we continue paddling and hoped we would see a blaze soon. We did, but it was a red one!

 

After several red blazes, Jeff sensed we were heading in the wrong direction. I turned on my cell phone’s compass app. Yes, we were headed northeast instead of southwest. We turned around and searched for another blaze.

 

“Let me know when you see a red blaze. I cannot see them,” my color-blind husband said. The blazes were few-and-far-between, and we cruised into our campsite two hours later, hot, tired, and relieved.

 

Our recap of our latest adventure led us to a discussion of how God only gives us one “blaze” at a time. Every day is lived moment to moment, like kayaking blaze to blaze. Sometimes we have to look up for the sign before we should move forward.

 

I will take only firm paths and follow the blazes God sets before me. I hope you will, too!