Unexpected Answers To Viral Questions

Lost In The Woods

How did I even get here? Lost in an Adirondack forest, blood dripping onto my shirt while struggling to keep her staggering upright. Though small, she was bigger than I, and she was getting heavier and heavier as she leaned on my shoulder, relying on me to get us out of there.

The day started well enough, we’d decided to go for a hike in the forest near our campsite. The sky was blue and clear – we’d heard a trail was nearby and we were just new enough to camping to be excited by the prospect and not informed enough to know the dangers of venturing off without a map, a compass, or any clear direction of where we were going.

The three of us were up there because my older brother had been at sleep-away camp for two weeks so Mom decided it would be fun for us to camp a bit after picking him up. She and I had come up the day before and spent the night in the bed and breakfast and after picking up my brother went back to the campsites owned by the same establishment. We set up our orange pup tent – Mom and brother lengthwise, side by side, and me at the bottom sprawled in an undulating wave over their feet. It was tight, but we were small. I was about 10 at the time and somewhat shorter than my 14-year-old brother and my mother who stood a whopping four-foot-ten and a half inches tall.

Two Roads Diverging

The walk through the woods was beautiful. There were trees and grass and wildflowers everywhere. The terrain was easy – gentle slopes up and down – and the trail was worn well enough to follow easily. At last, we came to a beautiful tiny river with a small area of rapid-flowing water and a little waterfall that we could cross atop. This part is a bit fuzzy, I remember the river and I know that we ended up on the other side but I’m not sure if we crossed at the rocky part or another way. The important thing was that we ended up on the other side. We continued to walk and eventually came to a place where the trail forked and we spent a while deciding which fork to take. Robert Frost’s line, ‘Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the road less traveled by,” ran through my head. Mom loved poetry.

We continued on for some time until my brother began to get antsy and wanted to turn back. When we had reached the spot where the three trails met again, my brother and I wanted to go back the way we came. My mother, however, insisted that the path we thought led back was the wrong path. An angry argument ensued and my brother took off on his own down the path leading back to the campsite. My mother and I went the wrong way. I pleaded with her to turn around – that we were going down the wrong path, but she was insistent and stubbornly refused. I tried and tried to persuade her as we walked and walked and the path became less and less worn and more and more overgrown. Finally, when I was beginning to feel that if I did not turn back immediately,  I would not find the way back, I began arguing with her – threatening to leave if she didn’t turn around. Nothing was familiar anymore, we were clearly on the wrong path and the wrong side of the river. I was afraid of being lost in the forest and I stomped off angrily hoping that she would follow. She did not.

No Turning Back

When I was far enough away to have lost sight and sound of her I stopped, waiting expectantly, but she didn’t come. I knew we were on the wrong road, but I didn’t want to leave her by herself either. I crept back, trying to make up time but still salty that she hadn’t followed. Finally, I caught sight of her through the trees steadily plodding along as near as she could to the water. I didn’t want her to know I was there because I was still so angry. I knew I was being a petulant child, but fury, fear, and pride prevented me from getting any closer. We walked for ages. There was no hope of a trail left, just a pine needle carpet under a dense canopy of trees next to the river. At last, she stopped, she disappeared behind some dense brush or cover and crept nearer to the river’s edge. She had found a spot to sit on a rock. I stopped also and found a way through the brush to a rock of my own. I could just make out her feet and calves on the boulder she was perched on. Watching the water began to calm my rage and I looked back at her legs. Suddenly I saw her lurch forward followed by a cry. I jumped up and ran to where she was.

God Help Us!

By the time I got there, the gash in her forehead was bleeding profusely and staining her shirt. I helped her off the rock and back into the woods. As I think back now, I could have followed the river back, but we had already been walking for what seemed like hours. She was woozy and shaky on her feet. Her right hand was up trying to stop the bleeding, but we had nothing with us for first aid. She leaned on me with her left arm around my shoulder and we began to walk forward. I was lost now. I had spent so much time following her that I lost track of where we’d been. Nothing looked familiar. Praying to God for help, I just walked the way I felt led. Soon enough though the trees began to thin and larger spaces between them let in more light. I caught a glimpse of a rickety wooden fence through the trees and I led her away from the sound of the water and toward it. Where there were fences – there had to be people I reasoned.

I helped her slide through the two center cross beams and followed her to the other side. We quickly came to a wide-open field – the grass was thigh-high and almost to my waist. I walked on, Mom staggering with the loss of blood and me staggering under her weight – her blood mingling with my sweat and dripping down my shirt as well. We must have been a sight coming out of the woods that way. I scanned the field and there – right in the center- grass up to the center of the wood paneling, was an older station wagon like my parents used to have. Next to the driver’s side was a man – dark, longish hair. As I think back, I’m not sure if he had a camera in his hand or something else, but he was there in the middle of the field, in the middle of nowhere, on an empty road on which no cars passed. What registered the most was the look of horror and fear that washed across his face as he saw us coming toward him.

Angels Among Us

“Can you help us?” I asked as he stared at us wild-eyed and then asked again. I was terrified of the man in the field. I had grown up reading the milk cartons with missing children on them every morning. But, I had no choice. He unfroze and helped my mother into the passenger side of the car and I got in the back seat. He drove out of the field and onto the empty road. There were no hospitals nearby – they were hours away. He talked to Mom as he drove, but all I remember was that his name was Randy Kane. We passed no other cars on the road. Eventually, he pulled up a driveway to a house and helped Mom inside. I stayed in the car. When they finally emerged, she was stitched up and bandaged. Randy had paid the doctor for her care and then drove us a considerable distance back to our campsite.

Relief, regret, and fear washed across my brother’s face as he saw the car pull up and Mom and me get out. It was nearly dark now as she got her purse and paid Randy back, thanking him again for all his help.

I don’t remember what happened after he left, but I know that it didn’t prevent us from going camping again, albeit with a considerable amount of experience gained each successive trip. What stuck with me the most was how I felt – incredibly guilty. If I had just walked with her and not left, this would never have happened. I’ve spent many years ashamed of myself for my part in that misadventure.

Until now.

Perspective

I was thinking about the, “Would you rather meet a bear or a man alone in the woods,” viral question before I fell asleep and my dreams were plagued with this memory. For the first time, I was able to give myself some grace and look at things from a different perspective. I’m a mom now and I thought back not just to my choices that day as a child, but to my own mother’s. Would I have made the same ones?

Nope.

Not even a little bit.

I would have followed the first child back if he refused to do what I said because he was a young teen in the woods. And while I recognize the troubled past my brother had and how he was so frequently unmanageable, I don’t think I would have let him leave by himself. But Mom was a single mother and there were so many struggles with that boy so I understand why she did what she did, I’m just not certain I would have done the same.

Next, I thought about her decision regarding me. This I am one hundred percent certain about. At ten, I was the good kid. I followed her directions, I helped clean up the messes left behind by my brother. I was her constant companion and confidant. At the very least she should have listened when I was agreeing with him about the way to go. And, when I turned to leave – she should have followed. I had been hurt for years that she didn’t follow me, but only felt ashamed that I’d left. For the first time, I couldn’t get past the fact that she had been so stubborn. I kept replaying the fact that she let her ten-year-old wander off alone in one of the largest forest preserves in the country. Maybe she didn’t realize. Maybe she was at her wit’s end. Who knows. I just know that I would never have made that second choice.

Unexpected Answers To Viral Questions

The unexpected answer to that viral question is that when we put our trust in Jesus, we don’t have to worry about the bear, the man, or the forest because God is greater than all of that. The chances of us finding our way out to a field in the middle of the Adirondacks are slim. Finding our way to a road when there was so much forest around was even slimmer. But, to find a random man – on a random day – in the middle of a random field – in a 6.1 million acre forest preserve – who would not only help us, but pay for the doctor, take us back to where we were staying, and then never hear from or see him again is nothing short of miraculous. God went before us to prepare for my mother’s stubbornness. He moved me to stay behind with her even in my anger. His spirit led me to watch over her and help her out. Had I not been there, the story could have ended very differently and my life may have never been the same. God makes a way where there seems to be no way. He commands his angels regarding us to protect us from danger – even when the danger is ourselves. God provides for us in our folly and faithfulness.

So whether you are the picture of Mary Poppins perfection or just like every other fallible, imperfect mother in the world, I wish you God’s peace and grace – you already have his unfailing love.