Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Rite of Passage

One of the first e-mails that I saw when checking my messages this morning was from my father, and it was about the rite of passage for a young Cherokee boy. I wanted to share it here -- it has a great message indeed.
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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.

7 comments:

Brian said...

Love that story! It gave me goosebumps. And, a double blessing to get that from your earthly father.

Unknown said...

Thanks for this.

Rites of passage are definitely missing from our society right now. If we're to be helping our kids turn into strong men and women we need these sorts of tools to help them on their passage. The church can, and should, help with this.

Thanks again.

rdl said...

nice story/nice dad

Kristen said...

That's beautiful! Thank you to you and your dad for sharing it.

karen said...

very cool story.

ipanema said...

that's a lovely story to start the day.

Robert said...

very cool story perfect picture of God as He is with us thank you very much for your prayers as well brother I look forward alot to reading your insights from the various books you take on