Testimony of Healing February 11, 2008 Issue

GRATITUDE FOR GOD'S PROTECTION

ROGER BEVAN

Some years ago, I was hiking through the Black Forest in southern Germany, an environment I'd always longed to explore. At one point, after two days of hiking, I found I couldn't match any of the trails with those on my map, and I eventually became thoroughly lost. The ridge path I had been trying to find had eluded me. Precious little light reaches the forest floor even on bright days, and adding further to what I then felt were my bleak prospects, the boughs above me were still dripping from over-night rain.

Fearful and despondent, I sat down and opened my backpack. I pulled out a copy of the Sentinel, and began to read. My eyes fell on a verse from Psalms, quoted in one of the articles, that would transform my experience—not just then, but for the remainder of my trip: "Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea" (46:2). I couldn't imagine a worse scenario than the catastrophic events the Psalmist described, and yet, even those calamities would not daunt him. Comparatively, my situation was so much less dire. In a few moments, my fear and worry dissolved, replaced by a calm and joyful awareness of God's presence.

Feeling uplifted, I started off again. I continued on the same trail as before, this time confident that I was following God's direction. Soon, I became aware of a bell chiming at regular intervals in the distance. I recognized this was the bell of a church clock. Then I left the trail I was on and began walking in the direction of the bell. From a strictly practical point of view this might have been considered foolish, but with a new sense of God's guidance, it seemed perfectly natural.

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