The Precious Walk of Faith

The Precious Walk


A car stands deserted next to the road. Taking one final glance backward, the woman wonders, ‘How long before someone will ask why or what or who or how?' She left no farewell note. Who would understand? She desperately needed to be free! Free from worries, fears, concerns, burdens. There didn’t seem to be another way. She crossed the road toward the garden. In her head played the song, Past the Point of No Return from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera:

"Past the point of no return
No backward glances
Our games of make-believe are at an end.

Past the point of no return
The final threshold
What warm unspoken secrets
Will I learn
beyond the point of no return?"

She sings Christine’s lines from her own heart:

"You have brought me
To that moment when words run dry
To that moment when speech disappears
Into silence
Silence.

Past the point of no return
No going back now
Our passion-play has now at last begun."

The last words her husband spoke to her, "You and your Precious Walks." He had wanted to spend more time alone with her. She'd felt overwhelmed by the pressures and demands on them. She hoped her family would remember she loved them. They had many happy times together. She clawed at her memory to bring them up now, amidst the chaos swirling in her mind. With hope deferred, disappointment, fear and doubt overtook her mind.

Had they made a tragic mistake choosing to leave the life of wealth and family bliss to spend their lives on the poor? Were they mad? What did they hope to achieve without the status and success they had ascertained? How would they support their family? What future were they securing for their children? Selling their home, cars and moving into a shabby duplex rental that cost as much as their former house payment was absolutely absurd in the world's eyes! Wasn’t it more than a bit arrogant to think they had something the poor needed? Since they traded in full-time employment for full-time ministry what did they hope to have for the poor? Their friends mocked and questioned, just as wealthy parents do a daughter who falls madly in love with a starving artist. How far will love take you? Will it pay the rent? Will it put food on your table?


She wearily put the voices out of her mind again. Money would come. It was a challenge to live a different life. They would overcome one storm just in time for another to come. It all began to spin in her head! Frantically she searched for shelter from the storm. Her husband was doing all he could to keep them going. They had prayed and prayed and prayed. There were answers, to be sure. But not always the ones they were looking for. And other hard things moved onto the field of life. Her well of faith had begun to run stone dead, dry. She'd prayed every prayer, hoped, believed. Still she’d come to the end of Existence Road! Hoping beyond hope that her help would come down from that sacred mountain and meet with her, she’d parked the car and gotten out. The garden was her last resort, the only place she'd known where one could still find peace, rest and shelter from the storm. Surely her beloved would come now, for she no longer could bear the burdens.

As she crossed the road, her eyes beheld the beauty of the garden. Such magnificent splendour and grace at the foot of the mountains. Who could have planned it? What lone human being could possibly know where to plant the right splashes of red, blue, yellow, and orange to blend with the lush green of the grass and the refreshingly cool browns and greys of the bush and mountain? Who knew to strategically place Ericas, Proteas, Agapanthus and hedge in one giant collection that it would cast such brilliant life? And how did those glorious sunrises and sunsets magically appear as the backdrops for this paradise? How did the Egyptian geese, foxes, fish eagles, bok and fowl know this place as refuge? How did they know the lushness of the fynbos would provide shelter for their babies to be protected as they grew? To whom were the birds singing their beautiful morning and evening songs of praise?

Laying aside her anxieties and stress, the garden would become her place of refuge too, forever! The breathtaking colors and blooms of Agapanthus, Ericas, Gladiolus, Proteas and the like would override her thoughts and fears; becoming an oasis of refreshment in the midst of overwhelming grief. There was no turning back now. She had decided. Lost in the woods was the only way to Be. And here she could Be forever.

When the golden sun arose she would sleep, laying her head down under the canopy of protection the almond hedge and the trees providing their lush shade. In the cool of the evening she would walk among this blossoming creation. She would pass her life away trouble free. Her soul would find rest and refreshing, moment by refreshing moment at the streams of the mountain.

The memory of her husband's love touched her heart as the Phantom's lines played in her mind. It became the potion that exposed the deception that had her bound. Christine tears away the mask, revealing the phantom's true face. Truth opens the eyes of her heart… the singing continues in her head:

"Say you’ll share with me
One love, one lifetime
Lead me, save me from my solitude

Say you want me
With you here
Beside you
Anywhere you go
Let me go too
Christine that’s all I ask of… "


"Save me from my solitude,” she cries! In that moment her mind returned to those she loved and to the One who loved her most. She heard His voice say, “The garden was only meant for temporary visits now. She had much still to do.”

Running back through the garden, out the gate and into the crosswalk; the woman gazed at the car standing deserted next to the road. Whew! It was still there, as if waiting for her to take ownership once again. There would come another day perhaps to share visits in the garden with those she loved. Opening the door, she climbed in and drove back through the trash strewn streets where the homeless lay sleeping, through the skyscraper clad busyness of the city, to the place they all called home.