Trail Markings

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.”

– Mark 1:14

Scripture Reading: Mark 1:1-15

Our family is finally beginning to reenter a phase of life that is conducive to hiking. For the past ten years we’ve had to juggle babies, toddlers, or preschoolers. And though we never completely avoided hiking during that time, there was always the added challenge of carrying kids or motivating them to keep moving on their own. Often carrying proved to be the easier of those two options!

Like most of parenting, we figured out a few strategies to help along the way. Walking sticks and snack breaks proved useful. As did encouraging the kids to keep an eye out for trail markers, which became ‘buttons’ that they had to push with sticks or rocks. It only distracted them for awhile, but we were willing to take any help we could get.

Of course, the real purpose of those trail markers is to keep a hiker on the correct path.

Looking at Jesus’s journey, I find myself wondering if His cousin, John the Baptist, isn’t some sort of metaphorical trail marker. In the first chapter of the gospel of Mark, we see Jesus going out to be baptized in response to John’s preaching of repentance. That baptism then leads to Jesus journeying into the wilderness to face temptation. Then in verse 14, there seems to be a link between John’s imprisonment and Jesus beginning His public ministry, preaching throughout Galilee. Later, we read about John’s death in Mark 6, immediately followed by Jesus demonstrating a new level of power. He has been preaching, teaching, healing, and casting demons out of individuals. But now we see Jesus performing an astounding miracle; feeding a crowd of five thousand men plus women and children, using only five fish and two small loaves of bread. And He quickly follows that up with walking on water.

I used to think that Jesus, as fully God, already knew every step of His journey from the moment He was born. If that was true, then He had no need of trail markers to guide Him along the way.

But then again, Scripture tells us that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. How could that be true of Him without the very human experience of having to discern God’s will for His life? Perhaps, like us, Jesus caught glimpses of Your guidance in the people and events surrounding Him. He was simply much more aware of those signs and willing to obey them.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, it is hard to fathom how much You love us, but we see evidence in Your willingness to follow Your earthly trail to its finish. When we lose sight of that love, we begin to act like toddlers, refusing to move any further. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on You, following in of Your footsteps. Amen.