Story: Follow the Man of Light

With 2007 before us, a new year in front of us, allow me to ask this question: "Who are you following?" Are you following one (or a thing) that is trustworthy? Are you going in the right direction? Where are you right now? Are you in the safety of light or are you lost in the wintery darkness. Please read this very short story I wrote and see whether you are following the right one?

John struggled to peer through the icy snow that blasted his face. The harsh, winter wind shot the icy pelts at him like little bullets. They hurt his face, and the freezing air pained his eyes, but he had to push forward. He had to get out of this storm.

It seemed like endless hours (and perhaps it was) that he’d been wandering around aimlessly and directionless. He was frozen to the core, all heat drawn from his body by the air that bit mercilessly at the skin of his exposed face and gnawed unceasingly at his bare arms and hands. The back of his neck was slick with ice. It pained him to breath. It was excruciating when he coughed.

Despite his weakness, despite his dizziness, despite his disorientation his mind kept flittering back over the memory of what got him here in the first place…

He had been on a road he did not know, not certain which way to take to get to his desired destination. A man dressed in black, who seemed to be kind, who had been very willing to help him, had stopped to aid him. The directions he gave were clear, sounded easy to follow, sounded just like the directions he needed. They took him off the road, into the forest, but he had been told it was a short cut and a sure way to restore himself on the path towards his destination.

If only then he could have known that it has all been a lie…

But it was too late. He was already hopelessly lost, swallowed whole by the forest and consumed completely by it. He belonged to it completely—to the forest and the winter storm.

Time lost all meaning. All hope had left him. There would be no way out of this.

And that was when he contemplated giving up. He stopped walking, lowered his gaze to the ground, and thought about sitting. It would be so easy. The ache in his legs had long since become stiffness and pain. They felt like logs ending in well-battered stumps. To sit would be so nice, so easy. It would end the pain.

Easier to give up, he thought.

Just as he resolved himself to bend his locked knees, bury himself in the banks, and allow the swirling snow to remove all memory of him from the world…the light appeared.

It was a spot at first. That was all he could see. But quickly it became brighter as it drew closer. And as it drew closer, it seemed to pave a way of light through the snow between him and it.

Or him?
It was hard to see, but the light appeared to be a man. Yes...it was. His face was strong …yet gentle and kind. There was a fearful power in his eyes.

The man beckoned to John and said, “Come, follow me.”

John starred dumbfounded, unable to believe what he saw, wanting to run to him, but afraid to move. The last time he has listened to someone…

But the man seemed to know his thoughts. “Trust me,” he said, his tone warm, soothing. “Come, follow me.”

And with that, the man of light turned and walked away from him.

Again he heard, “Come, follow me.”

John wanted him to stop, tried to call out to him but his throat wouldn’t function. The light path in the snow remained but he knew it would soon fade.

He had to make a choice. What would he do? Should he follow…or stay behind in the wintery world. It would be so easy to stay.

John continued to reflect as the man of light started to disappear over the crest of a small hill. The path of light remained, but he could see it just starting to fade. He looked behind him, saw the path he had been taken disappearing behind him, the snow filling in the prints he had made in the deep banks.

No more, he thought.

With resolution, the man turned…and took a step onto the path of light…and followed the Man of Light.

Are you following the One who is the Light of the World? Only He, Jesus, is trustworthy. Only He can take you where you really want to go, into God's bosom in heaven.