A Well Worn Path

A Well Worn Path

Smacking down the grass and weeds with a stick to make a trail through the woods was a common activity for me as a little girl. Hot summer days were easier tolerated under the cover of the forest trees that surrounded our home in Bankhead. Some days new and more interesting paths were carved, but most often I walked along the same footprints, letting my imagination take me to entertaining places.

Living in the landscape of the forest certainly came with its charm. The scenery was always inspiring. Still, calm nights were filled with the sounds of frogs and crickets chirping in harmony. Misty mornings accented with deer. Sunrises and sunsets so beautiful that they captured the soul and reminded me that they surely must be the handiwork of the Master.

In contrast to the beauty of the forest were also some dangers. Fallen limbs. Jagged rocks. Thorns among the briar patches, and just off the trail, more hazards that lurked in the foliage. 

All the more reason to tread carefully on the beaten down, clear path that my previous steps had formed.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about these well-worn paths.

The truth is, the paths I followed on those imaginative hikes were not always of my own making. More honestly they were trails that had been forged by others who had walked there before me. Others who cleared the way. Others who made it possible for me to see the places of sure footing. Places free of thorns. And leading in the right direction. Leading me toward home.

This evening as I listen to the sound of the rain falling, I am thinking about my grandmother and the well-worn path she laid out before me.

The life path she forged is a beautiful picture of God’s work. Despite the crooks and turns, impossible obstacles, and temptations to stop, she pressed forward. Forward, living a life serving God and her family and others. Forward toward her precious Jesus.

In Philippians 3, Paul said it this way:

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I cannot think of a better passage to describe my grandmother’s journey in this life. 

My heart misses her, but my soul is filled with only gratitude and joy for her life. A life well lived. And as I work to walk the path that she took before me, I am thankful for her precious footsteps that show me the way.

In Memory of Martha Frank Alford

June 19, 1932 - July 13, 2023