November 11 - John 16-18: Our Friend, the Spirit of Truth

Last night, I was reading The Princess and the Goblin, a book by one of my favorite authors, George MacDonald. It's a children's novel (similar to the Narnia books) with spiritual truths beautifully woven into the otherworldly story. I read a passage that I have to share with you because it illustrates so well what we read today about the Holy Spirit in John 16.

To set the scene, the Princess Irene is 8-years-old and lives hidden away in the country for her protection. In the large house where she lives, "half castle, half farmhouse, on the side of a mountain," she discovers an attic room where her loving and wise great-great-great grandmother lives, but no one but Irene knows that she's there. Grandmother gives Irene a beautiful ring with a fine thread attached that Irene can feel but not see. This is the exchange about the ring, between Irene and her grandmother.

" 'Now listen. If ever you find yourself in any danger ... you must take off your ring, and put it under the pillow of your bed. Then you must lay your forefinger, the same that wore the ring, upon the thread, and follow the thread wherever it leads you.'

'Oh, how delightful! It will lead me to you, Grandmother, I know!'

'Yes. But, remember, it may seem to you a very round-about way indeed, and you must not doubt the thread. Of one thing you may be sure, that while you hold it, I hold it too.'"

Of course, a dangerous situation quickly confronts Irene and she remembers the ring and obeys her grandmother's instructions,

"After leading her up a good distance the thread turned to the left...no path could have been more open and airy and cheerful.... Down and down the path went, then up, and then down, and then up again, getting rugged and more rugged as it went; stll along the path went the silvery thread, and still along the thread went Irene's rosy-tipped forefinger... the path grew roughter and steeper, and the mountain grew wilder till Irene began to think she was going a very long way from home; and when she turned to look back she saw that the level country had vanished and the rough bare mountain had closed in about her. But still on went the thread, and on went the princess....

"Then she began to be frightened indeed. Every moment she kept feeling the thread backward, and as she went farther and farther into the darkness of the great hollow mountain, she kept thinking more and more about her grandmother, and all that she had said to her, and how kind she had been, and how beautiful she was... and she became more and more sure that the thread could not have gone there of itself, and that her grandmother must have sent it. But it tried her dreadfully when the path went down very steep, and especially when she had to go down rough stairs and even sometimes a ladder.... In a hundred directions she turned, obedient to the guiding thread....

"Her fear vanished; once more she was certain her grandmother's thread could not have brought her just to leave her there...."

Princess Irene's journey reminds me of living life with the guide of the Holy Spirit. Not always pleasant, many turns, many doubts, trying to remember the One I'm holding on to. Jesus knew that the disciples were soon to be facing their own difficult situations and He didn't leave them to fend for themselves. He was sending the Perfect Guide,

I've told you these things to prepare you for rough times ahead.... It's better for you that I leave. If I don't leave, the Friend won't come. But if I go, I'll send him to you.

When he comes, he'll expose the error of the godless world's view of sin, righteousness, and judgment.... when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. (16:1, 7-8, 13-14)

This is Our Friend, the Spirit of the Truth. He leads us, even when we can't see. He doesn't take us places just to leave us there. He's constantly exposing, guiding, and making sense out of His plans for our lives. The question is, am I holding tightly to Him when life takes unexpected turns?  Do I believe that He exists and is holding fast to me when life is steep and dark and unknown?