The Maze

Psalm 143:10 – Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path. (NRSV)

My 6 year old son loves mazes. Usually these are the pen and paper kind. Yesterday he learned firsthand what it was like to be in a real maze.

We arrived at the "maize maze". It was a carefully planned maze covering eight acres with ten foot high corn for walls. As an additional challenge, we were told there were seven objects to find.

When we went in, I let my son lead. He took great delight in choosing which way to go. I quietly followed, letting him go whichever way he wanted.

It didn't take long to find ourselves lost in the middle of the maze. My son soon became frustrated as we retraced steps, or kept coming back to the same place again and again. The paths and corn all looked the same. We found only one of the seven objects. At one point, we thought we were making progress only to find ourselves right back at the start.

At this point I stepped in. I told my son that I had a plan and that he had to trust me to get us through the maze. He let me take the lead, and I carefully followed the right wall of the maze. This technique took no shortcuts. It led us to lots of dead ends. But I knew mazes well enough to know we would find the end following this strategy. My son became frustrated that we weren't going ways he thought were better, but I knew taking them would mess up my plan. Systematically we found all seven objects and completed the maze.

As we drove home, he turned to me and said, "Dad, I guess you were right." That's a huge compliment from a six year old.

Can we have the same trust in our Heavenly Father?

Prayer: Our lives are a maze, Lord. Only by trusting in you, following your plan, and obeying the instructions you give in the Bible, can we find our way. Amen.

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