I saw a person lost in the woods. It was getting dark, and it was his fault—nobody but his—that he was in this fix. He’d claimed he was smart, strong, and could find his own way in any wilderness. While he napped under the tree, his city friends and mountain guide, not wanting to disturb him, got their things together and hiked home. He could come back on his own, they reasoned, since he had told them of his familiarity with the wild, how he had trekked through unmarked paths often in the past. They had no way of realizing he was remembering times with his father who knew that forest “like the back of his hand.”—actually, the fellow couldn’t do it alone.
When the man woke by himself, he tried not to panic—and decided to look for moss growing on the trees to get a sense of direction; tried to see what the birds ate to know which berries were safe; then planned to follow water to get to safety. He would be fine, he told himself. But after a few hours, when he began to hear wolves howling; when the moss he saw felt eery instead of helpful; when he could see no birds at all; and when there was no sign or sound of water anywhere...suffocating doom seemed to press in on the man from all sides.
It was getting dark, and the man picked up a branch by the side of the path. He saw two snake-eye-like things glowing in the bushes and froze, but moments later let out his breath when he saw a small tail disappearing into the grass. Whew; just a lizard.
But what was that on the ground? Behind the disappearing tail, the man saw an...iron soapbox (?) with an antenna sticking out of it. The man recognized it; Dad’s old walkie-talkie! Dad must’ve left it here after one of their camping trips.
That was probably decades ago. Would this old thing still work? The man reached down, shook it, fiddled with some dials and switches. At first, there was nothing, but after a few seconds, the brick-like thing seemed to get warm and hiss, whistled, then a voice rasped,
“Haven’t used this thing in a long time!”
“Dad!” the man cried incredulously. “It still works?!”
”Solar batteries,” the voice said. “Good while the sun shines. It’s the gears and chips around it that get old and rusty.”
“Wow…”
“But never mind that. Son, why do you have my walkie-talkie? The son told his dad about his predicament.
“Gotcha.” the father said. He would talk his son out of those woods all the way home. The son needed to keep that walkie-talkie close; listen to what his dad said; stay out of the shade or areas that might weaken solar batteries; as well as avoid rock formations that would be obstacles to radio wave reception.
“Trust me.” The voice on the walkie-talkie said. “Dad’ll get you back home.”
All through the forest, that man kept that iron treasure box in his breast pocket, right near his heart. He no longer felt the overwhelming, disabling fear he’d known earlier. His father, who knew the forest like his backyard, was with him! Sure, when the wolf howled; when forest creatures’ eyes glowed; when the unknown threats first made their presence known; the man’s initial response was to recoil; but now, all he had to do was contact Dad; those things looked manageable.
And he found he could even laugh about those fears and brag about how the father could manage all of them. Actually, that walk back through the woods seemed almost too short; the man and the father talked about their camping trips together; he told the father about mistaking the lizard for a snake; about his perplexity at not seeing birds; about looking for moss on trees and realizing he was walking around in circles.
When the man got back to the city and met his friends, what would you have thought if he took credit for being able to survive the wild so well and make it back home in such good spirits? What would you think if he amassed praise for what a great man of nature he was and wrote of “his knowledge of the forest” for future travelers?
Or do you think it would make sense for him to say, “Me? I didn’t do anything. My Dad is an expert in the outdoors, and I just listened to Him! He’s the Best, I tell you…”
END
COMMENTS for CHRISTIANS reading “WALKIE TALKIE”:
l Might wanna notice it was “DAD’s”; The whole piece is a parallel on how we think of the Bible. The starting-off point is usually wrong. It’s GOD’s book, not OURS, to tamper with.
l “WALKIE-TALKIE”. If God’s talk doesn’t walk in our lives, we’ve lost out on what it was meant to be.
1. Sometimes, perplexing things will happen in our lives that will be designated “our fault”. But we need not give ear to the accuser of the brethren. Some things are results from our yet unglorified sin nature, true; But others come from the fact the unregenerated simply do not understand God’s children.
2. So—not all alienation is bad. In fact, it could be it’s a sign you’re doing something right as a Christian, and people are taking notice!
3. The whispered direction and sustaining…maybe sometimes it seems we aren’t consciously reaching out for Him, but our Father is watching over us! Do we really think the balmy winds in our lives blow for naught? A loving heavenly Father may be caressing us, without our knowing it.
4. God knows how to get our attention, sometimes it is by health hazards, other times it by job losses, or by political upheavals. He’d prefer painless methods, but most people don’t have time to listen to children, beggars, or people without profit, threat or authority.
5. Solar-powered batteries may’ve been good, but unless the user pressed the switch and availed himself of that power, it did him no more good than if he were holding a brick. If a child of God doesn’t want his heart to turn to stone, he needs to constantly avail himself of forgiveness (eternally guaranteed through the Cross). Dad said the metal and stuff around the battery corroded and rusted; isn’t that what happens to the mind and body of man without the life of God flowing through them?
6. Dad didn’t scold the son, and neither will God chide us for our sins. When we repent for our wrongs and say, “Help God”, He cares for our hearts then lovingly helps us turn our lives around.
7. Trust. We need to OBEY higher authorities of men perhaps, but we need to TRUST God, And this God had promised to get us all the way through life, safely across Jordan, across to the Golden Shores, until we’re Home where we’ll not only hear His Voice, but we’ll see His Smile.
8. Some say staying balanced is the key, but this man could be called one-track-minded. He wore that box on his heart and steered clear of tempting, shady areas, rocky places, competing attractions. Communion with the Father should become our very lives too. “All For Jesus”, “Nothing Between”, “Lost In Thee”. He was very off-balanced, if you ask me. We don’t hear those songs anymore.
9. But “enjoy” is a word most people don’t associate with Bible-reading or God! This man had a great time with his dad over that transmitter, every step of the way through the forest. “God and I” time—how delicious they are for those who have found that walk far too short! No wonder we find ourselves wanting to get lost in the woods over and over again!
10. I am not saying all Christians that have a sensational testimony are wrong—it could very well be God took them through those circumstances. Neither am I saying every believer “in obscurity” is walking in God’s will; I realize many believers in the shadows are estranged from God.
Maybe that’s the very thing I’m getting at. When talking “about views on the Bible”, most people don’t really do that; they talk about MEN and their Biblical perspectives and stands.
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