Once In the Long Days of Night

(Continued from In Search of Others, Feb. 24th Archive)

Many days of fighting had gone by. Not by will, but by happenstance, I picked up a number of stragglers and people without swords, nonfighters who were at best victims of the fight. They trailed along behind me and I did not know where to take them.

The first man I had helped was a fighter; but he had a dagger rather than a sword which puzzled me at first. I thought what can you do with that? But he was trustworthy. I could rely on him. He had a heart for the many others who joined us. Put together as we were, we must have been a motley group to anyone else, bedraggled, frayed and half-afraid.

We walked a great distance across this dark plain. I had no visible landmark by which to tell direction. We may have gone in circles for all I knew. I didn't swing the sword constantly, but at times and now and then, my one brother would take out his dagger and swing it into the air back and forth as if the fight were close to his heart.

Wherever we went, we picked up more stragglers. Finally, in the dark of the long days of night, I saw an outcropping, a large singular block of stone sitting higher on the plain than all the ground around. I led the troop there and by then, we must have numbered close to one hundred men, women and children.

At the base of it, even in the dark, I could make out an inscription on the rock, carved by some ancient knife or tool. In a phrase about one foot long and perhaps four inches in height were the words The Hope Stone. I put my hand to it. I felt the rough cut of the words. The rock was smooth yet peppered by the wind and sand. At it's peak it was no more than chest high to me.

"I think you should get up on it," my younger friend encouraged.

I felt the same. At the lower end, about knee high, he assisted me. I stood up and walked to the high point, thinking that perhaps I'd be able to see something in the distance. I scanned the horizon in all directions, but nothing revealed itself. We were without direction. I looked out over the small crowd of dependent people and said to them in a loud voice the one thing I knew.

"Regardless of our circumstance, we must be thankful. We must express this thanksgiving from inside and let it be heard in the air," I said. They began one by one, my young friend being first until a crescendo had built up. As a chorus, they were praising God and thanking Him for His Goodness, His Grace and Mercy in their lives. They were giving thanks in a most robust way.

I looked up at the dark, heavy sky. I layed the sword at my feet and raised my hands toward the heavens. "O Lord," I said, "I am weary, but can you hear their voices? How sweet is the sound of the feeble and the troubled calling out your Holy Name in praises and thanksgiving! Do you hear it? How long, now, must we be in this fight? How long must we walk about aimlessly, Lord?" But no answer came. I bowed my head, "Nevertheless," I raised my face again, "I join them, Lord. I too give thanks. Holy, Holy, Holy you are and without You we would not have come this far. I praise You and I thank You. Holy is Your Name. " We sang like that for minutes on end, each of us phrasing his or her own song, yet the harmony was incredible, as if we'd been trained to sing in an orchestrated choir.

At that point, a light shown high in the sky but off a little in one direction. I happened to be looking right at it when it appeared. Like a star at first, it grew quickly as if the sun itself were breaking through the cloud. It was very bright and fast-growing, then I saw it reflecting off the clouds around it where it had opened up a hole.

"Keep singing," I cried out to the others, exhuberant over what I saw. "Keep praising Him!" The light grew and great beams of light showered down from the dark sky onto the plain until a hole larger than our sun appeared in the center of which stood a being whose form I could see, but whose details were hidden behind the brightness of His Face and Garments. "Oh God," I cried, sinking to my knees. "We are not worthy to see you. Is this You?"

"I have never left you," his voice was clear and some how kind. "I have given you this trial to test you..."

Oh God, I thought at the sound of His Voice, but I have failed.

"...and your heart shows clearly to me. You must lead these people now. Trust me, I will guide your steps. I will provide for you. Though your walk may be difficult, the journey is not long. Lead these people I have given you and bring them home to me. You must trust me. Shed the rest of the doubt from your heart. I am the Lord Your God. I am Sovereign. Go in the direction I give you and stay the course. The joy I gave you in the sword is now in you. Let it shine. Trust me and it will shine."

After He spoke, the bright light all about Him began to recede. As I watched The One Who'd Spoken disappeared into the night sky in the same way in which He'd come. Only the star remained, and it looked just like a star. I reached to pick up my sword but it was gone.

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