An Indian Rite of Passage

I haven't heard this one before. I've always been fascinated by the ways of the American Indian. Native Indian . . . you know cowboys and INDIANS. Anyway, sometimes we really do need to remember the way things really are . . . instead of what the world teaches us.

The legend of the Cherokee Indian rite passage.

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 any One. 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, God is watching

Over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to

Do is reach out to him.

Moral of the story:

Just because you can't see God,  Does not mean He is not there.

'For we walk by faith, not by

Sight.'