In the still of the day the wind crept its way up through the valley of Decision rattling leaves and stirring about the hills and hollows. The sun hung bright as it drove the heat throughout the valley creating a warm day with a touch of coolness.
“Ooh-wee,” shivered the wise man as he stood beside the road. “It must be the wind from off the nearby like creating this chill in the air,” he mumbled. “From the signs of the changing leaves and the shorter days, fall will soon be here.”
As he stood there, a rushing chill stirred in the wind about him. It wrapped itself around him and sent a quiver down his spine. The wise man lived in the valley and the road he stood beside was also the road that ran through the valley called Old Bottom. On one end of the road there was the little community called Difficult and on the other end of the road, not far away, was the small community called Defeated. Now if there was anything you could say at all about the wise man, it was definitely that he was a very smart and clever man. There wasn’t too much that he didn’t know.
However, there was one day in particular that even he was lost. He stood beside the road and carefully looked from side to side. He noticed the giant hills that surrounded him were dressed in tall timber, engraved with rugged cliffs and steep banks. Down the road he saw a large body of water. He knew the water stayed troubled most of the time because of the northeast wind that blew about it and through the valley. The wise man quietly stood and thought for a minute. He slowly turned to his right and then to his left.
“At the end of the road this way is Defeated,” he said. “At the end of the road the other way is Difficult. Which choice do I choose,” he sighed in frustration.
He knew what lay before him was yet to come. He also knew the time had come for him to move on. But the question was which choice to choose. So, the wise man sat down that day beside Old Bottom Road. He carefully thought and looked things over. He studied this way and that. He took everything into consideration. He narrowed down all the possibilities, odds and alternatives. He came to the conclusion that he was stumped. He didn’t know what to do. For the first time in his life, he didn’t know what to do. He was puzzled and baffled by the problem. He refigured, studied some more and tried every angle imaginable. But, there was nothing. He didn’t want to go back. Defeated and Difficult were out of the question. The hills were too hilly and the water was too troubled. So, what did the wise man do? He continued to sit beside the road still puzzled.
“What must I do?” he asked. “Which choice do I choose?” he pondered as he hunched up his shoulders and quietly sighed.
It came to pass, as he sat there that day, a small child came by. He was on his way to go fishing. He had a cane pole and a can of worms in one hand. He came upon the wise man as he was pondering the question of which choice to choose. As the little boy stood before him, the wise man shared his problem with the child. He explained the situation and told the child he had considered all the circumstances. The child stood still and quiet as he listened to the wise man. Suddenly, the wise man jumped up but he was still puzzled and confused.
“I don’t know which choice to choose,” he yelled. “I don’t know what to do.”
The child paused for a moment and slowly eased up on his tiptoes. He looked down the road as far as he could see. Then he looked up the road from where the wise man came. He knew about Defeated and Difficult and he also knew about the troubled waters. As the child looked around, he looked up at the high hills covered with timber, rugged cliffs and steep hills that surrounded the valley. He stood quietly before the wise man with his cane pole and can of worms in one hand. He placed his other tiny little hand on the wise man’s shoulder. He looked up to him and stared into the wise man’s eyes. He gently patted the wise man’s shoulder.
“This is the choice you should choose,” the child said as he gently patted the wise man’s shoulder. “Follow Him through the valley where the wind blows through Defeated and Difficult, across the troubled water and over the hills with the rugged cliffs and steep banks to a new horizon. You will find a new life in Him and beyond it all.”
Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Isaiah 55:8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
Isaiah 55:9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts.
The wise man listened intently to the child. He knew the child had spoken the truth.
“Child, as wise as I am please explain to me why I could not see the answer that I sought?”
The child patted the wise man shoulder once again and softly replied, “The answer was always there before you. The reason you failed to see it was because you were looking at all the other things instead of focusing on the power of God and what He can do. You were trying to do it within yourself and on your own. That is the reason why! You failed to recognize it. That’s the reason why the choice was so hard.”
While the wise man sat and listened to the child, he noticed that the child’s hook kept falling off his line. The child would put it back on but each time it fell back off.
“Let me see it, my child. Let me show you a little trick,” said the wise man.
Carefully, he took the hook between his fingers, threaded the line through the eye of the hook and then tied it into a knot.
“There you go,” he said. “It won’t fall off now.”
The child looked up at the wise man and asked, “Why didn’t I tie a knot like that?”
The wise man replied, “I learned it from experience.”
The child picked up his cane pole and worms. He said goodbye to the wise man and continued his journey down the road. The wise man reached up, scratched his head and smiled. He looked up toward the sky and paused for a moment of silence. Then he looked down the road at the child.
“Which choice to choose!” he yelled to the child.
The child kept on walking and never said a word.
“Hold up,” cried the wise man. “Wait for me.”
Suddenly, the child stopped and stood for a moment before he slowly turned around with his cane pole and can of worms in his hand; his hook was still on the line.
“Hurry up!” he yelled. “The fish are biting.”
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.