Trailblazer
By Elin Henderson
“Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway.”
Psalm 85:15 (NKJV)
When I was a little girl living in New England, each winter my dad would drag us out on the annual Christmas tree hunt. He wasn’t the type that went in for those “lots” where the trees are all cut and come with a little stand. Not Him! We would have to trek through the winter wonderland, deep into the woods, to find the perfect tree. This often meant wading through deep fields of snow. My dad would go first and blaze the trail and we would all follow along. He did the main work and we just toddled along behind.
The trailblazer is the one who does most of the work. He selects the path and prepares the way, clearing out obstacles so that those who are following behind will not be overwhelmed. There are always remaining obstacles, but the ones he leaves are the ones he knows the followers can handle. The job of the follower is to follow the lead and keep to the pathway that the trailblazer has marked out. If the followers try to venture off on their own, they will find the going pretty tough. However, if they are content to follow the trailblazer and keep stepping where he steps, the journey becomes do-able.
In the same way that I would stick right behind my dad as we wandered through the snow, stepping where he stepped and keeping my eyes on him, so also I need stick right behind God, the great Trailblazer of our lives. He knows what lies before us and will do the hard work of deciding on the right path. Sometimes, there are bends in the path where we might lose sight of Him, but He is always there, a few steps ahead, making the way clear and beckoning us to follow.
So whether our life journey takes us through the harshest wilderness, the thickest forests, the deepest snowbanks, or the driest deserts, our Trailblazer always goes before us making the path passable. Our job is to walk in His footsteps and stick on His pathway!
GOING DEEPER:
1. How does knowing that God is our Trailblazer help us as we come upon what we would perceive as obstacles along the way? What about when the trail goes into areas we would prefer to avoid?
FURTHER READING:
Oakwood’s missionaries Elin Henderson (a registered nurse) and her husband Phil serve as church planters with New Tribes in Mozambique, Africa. Elin is mother to eleven-year-old Callie and nine-year-old Elias.
