Yesterday on one of my regular dog walking routes I noticed a path that I had not gone down before. It was very definitely a Robert Frost moment.
“two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
It is a poem some of you are no doubt familiar with and has long been one of my favourites, but yesterday it came home afresh to me as I travelled down the unknown path. At first it climbed up through muddy tracks, but soon levelled off into a grassy plateau. Here the trees were far more widely spread -good social distancing I thought! – and far taller than many of the others in the lower woods. Here was the familiar flaming gorse but more sparsely distributed and in between green of every shade and hue. The new green that I love of the leaves, the darker green patches of grass, bright with bluebells, and the swampy brown green of damp moss.
It was almost as if I had been transported to a different part of the world altogether. Allied to that was the sudden stillness that engulfed me. The cold breeze dropped, the sun came out and the odd distant sound of traffic melted away. But what really took my breath away was the sudden vista that opened out before me. The majestic hills, still wearing their winter white caps, the river with its wide, curving arcs, bright in the sunshine. The green pastures and in between the bright gold of the rape.
I felt at once both tiny and insignificant in such grandeur and space, but also so loved and blessed as God, once again, reminded me that from his perspective everything looks different. I can only see the here and now, the short road ahead where everything is so uncertain. The days yet to come still in lockdown, the fears for loved ones, the grief of those mourning, the pressing concerns of this day, of tomorrow and the future in my small world.
But God has a much greater perspective. God takes the long view, the wide camera angle that looks at how everything holds together in His way and His time. His clock is not set to today but to eternity and one day we shall all see our lives in that context. The road less travelled did indeed make all the difference.
Wyvis Churches 