Monday, June 30, 2008

Cherokee Legend

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man! Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, our Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. Moral of the Story: Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there.

2 comments:

God at play said...

I just developed an interactive animation that went with this story. I had no idea where it came from, but after some research, I found out it was virally circulated as an e-mail, and then found it on this blog.

Are you the originator of the story as it is written here? Or did you copy it from an e-mail you got?

I'm trying to find the source of the story since the wording of the recording seems to be copied directly from the wording of this post.

Sheila D. Staves said...

In response to the comment from God at play...
This story came to me in email format and I shared here in my blog.
...sds