As part of the renovations on our house, we recently replaced several treads on the staircase.
For a few weeks, walking those stairs required more thought than it should have.
Normally, you do not think about stairs. You just walk them. Your feet know the rhythm. Your body remembers the distance. Familiarity quietly becomes trust.
But when a tread is missing, familiarity can betray you.
You learn very quickly to look down.
Life has a way of doing that.
We move through our days assuming tomorrow will feel something like yesterday. The people we love will still be there. Our health will hold. The job will continue. The money will come. The plans will work.
We know better, of course.
But knowing something intellectually and living as if it were true are two very different things.
Then a step changes.
A diagnosis comes. A relationship shifts. A door closes. A plan falls apart. Something that had always been beneath our feet suddenly is not.
And for a while, we watch every step.
There is fear in that, but there can also be clarity.
Uncertainty has a way of showing us how much confidence we had placed in things that were never really guaranteed.
Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
I have always found the wording interesting.
A lamp does not light the whole staircase.
It gives enough light for the next step.
Maybe that is why God so often refuses to show us the entire path. We want certainty. He gives us enough light to keep moving.
Faith is not pretending every step is there.
It is learning where to place your weight when you cannot see very far ahead.
And sometimes, the missing step is what finally teaches us where our trust belonged all along.
If this spoke to you, share it with someone who may be walking through an uncertain season.
#FirstLight #Faith #Trust #Perspective #Hope
