“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You”. Psalm 139:11-12
The windshield wipers of the little car were having a hard time keeping up with the rapid snowfall. Our driver, Lou, could barely see 10 feet in front of him as he drove on the narrow road through the Romanian forest. We were lost in a wilderness of black and white, lost with no map and no GPS. I doubted there ever had been a map of this remote place.
Wait, just ahead was a lone person on foot. The car shimmied as Lou hit the brakes. Finally, the car slid to a stop and he jumped out yelling, “Hey, do you know the way to Arad?” Two eyes peered out from this unlikely stranger’s mask. He briefly showed his face as he yelled back, “Turn around and go about two miles, then turn left”.
He covered his nose and mouth again and shuffled off into the thick darkness. Lou murmured something about not knowing what to do as he impatiently turned the car around and drove for two miles. We almost missed the left turn because of the low visibility. The darkness seemed to hug us even more tightly as Lou tried to get us to the illusive town of Arad.
Panic kept wanting to rise up in me because I knew that from where we came to Arad was only a 30-minute car ride. Could we have missed it? Two hours after our departure, we were alone and lost, or so we thought. My husband and I started to pray.
Ahead we saw a dim flicker. A campfire? I stifled a laugh at such a ridiculous thought. Lou gunned the engine too hard and we did a tailspin only to find that we were still headed toward the light. It grew stronger. What could it be? Brighter, brighter was the light! It was none other than…Arad! We didn’t have a map or GPS, but we had a prayer and a loving God who heard our prayer.
Prayer:
“Lord, thank you that the darkness is the same as light to you. We will pray next time before we feel like we are lost.”
In Jesus’ Mighty Name,
AMEN!
Final Thoughts:
I had felt lost, even panicky because I did not know where we were, and we couldn’t see the road in front of us. However, there is a map and God knows the way! This story of feeling lost in the Romanian woods was scary, but I can’t help but wonder, what would have happened if we had prayed before we began this trek, not as the last resort?
Be Greatly Blessed!
