Headed in the Right Direction
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out, not knowing where he was going.”
Hebrews 11:8 (NRSVUE)
Our family really loves to read. Part of it is probably a reaction to how I grew up. I was raised in a modest three-bedroom house in Florida with my sister and parents. Despite the modest size of our home, we had nine televisions. At almost any given time, at least one or two were on. Television ownership was a point of pride for my parents, especially once big screens became popular. We had a 60-inch Hitachi that was practically the size of one of those oversized golf carts.
While I was enamored with those screens as a kid, by high school they had begun to wear on me, and I found myself looking for ways to escape the noise.
My parents would catch me floating in the pool on an inner tube, reading the latest National Geographic magazine or a novel for English class. Because I fell in love with reading relatively late, I missed many of the great works of children’s literature.
Now that Hudson and Hazel are both in elementary school, we’ve been able to discover these books together for the first time. Hudson especially finds this funny. He’ll say something like, “Appa, you already know how this ends, don’t you?” But the truth is, I usually don’t.
A few weeks ago, we started on an E.B. White kick - the author of Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. We began with the first of his famous books, Stuart Little.
If you haven’t read it, it’s absolutely charming. It follows a boy who “looked very much like a mouse in every way.” Stuart helps around the house and goes on a series of mild adventures until a bird named Margalo crashes into the Little family’s window, and the family brings her in to recover. Stuart defends her from the family cat, but one night she quietly flies away after sensing the danger of staying in the house too long.
Stuart leaves home to search for Margalo. This is the point where the kids and I became excited to see how he would finally find her and bring her back.
Boy, were we surprised.
If you haven’t read it, consider this your spoiler warning.
He never finds her.
Instead, he simply keeps searching, and the book ends with the line that “the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction.”
It’s such a powerful ending to a book, especially a children’s book. (To be clear, Hudson complained about the “cliff-hanger” for days, but I thought it was wonderful.)
The ending offers no real closure, but it deeply honors the seeker. In the Bible, Abraham left home not knowing where he was going. The disciples followed Jesus long before they fully understood Him. As I see it, much of faith is lived this way: continuing onward with hope and trust that, even without all the answers, we are being led somewhere good.
Reflection: Where in your life might God be asking you to continue forward in faith, even without the clarity or closure you were hoping for?
Prayer: Gracious God, teach us to trust You even when the road ahead is uncertain. Give us courage to keep moving forward when we cannot yet see how the story will end. Help us to walk with the steady faith of Abraham and the hopeful perseverance of Stuart searching for Margalo. And remind us that wherever You lead, You are already there before us. Amen.
With faith, hope, and love,
Eric Smith