Marching in Single File

When I was a little girl I never enjoyed the instruction of lining up and walking in a straight line at school. There were so many rules that went along with it. Stay in step...watch the person in front of you...don't touch the people around you...no talking. I was much more comfortable just hanging out in a group with my friends. I was so thankful when we arrived at the place we were going so I could huddle back up with my girlfriends.

We all traverse through this life with a group of people whom God has placed around us… family, friends, colleagues, fellow believers along with a host of acquaintances. But sometimes we face a season that imposes its suffocating will upon us leaving us with such loneliness that we can barely breath. When adversity arises, it can be accompanied with a certain loneliness as our groups tend to thin out…spread out…maybe even fade out. Usually and thankfully, there will certainly be a handful who surround us with love, support and hope. A few years ago, I experienced this exact thing when all but a handful of people on this earth stayed invested in my tough journey. They offered me grace when I needed it and love and support when I had very little. They were angels on earth and God is well aware how precious they were and are to me. I read something this morning in my Bible Study from a sermon preached in 1855 by Charles Spurgeon that took my breath away with the image painted in my mind. He said, ‘We take sweet counsel together and walk to the House of God in company. Yet somewhere or other on the road, every Christian will find narrow paths and close places where pilgrims must march in single file.’  The Immutability of God, New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, London, Jan 7, 1855.

I’ll just bet there are some of you out there right now who are marching in single file with the weight of loneliness…fear…worry...grief. God’s word echoes throughout each book of the Bible His promise of presence. He knew that there would be times when we were marching in single file just as Jesus did in the wilderness and on the way to the hill where He painfully but lovingly laid down His life. But one of my favorite verses that parallels Spurgeon’s imagery of our march is 2 Co 2:14. ‘But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.’

When we follow Christ, our greatest failure will be turned into victory and our loneliness will be met with fellowship with God. When we are marching in single file with Christ leading, we cannot help but to reflect the aromatics of our Leader. Our greatest loneliness will be experienced when we find ourselves in the valley and we have lost sight of Jesus. He knows exactly where we are and how to guide us back but the more visible He is in front of us will determine the more closely our fellowship is with Him.  Even when the march is single file our Guide does not change. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus especially when we are marching in single file.