Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?

His dad takes his son into the forest - blindfolded - and leaves him.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not take off the blindfold until the ray of sun shines through it. He is all by himself. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of what he encounters during this experience. Each Lad must come into his own manhood.

The boy is terrified. He hears all kinds of noise. He knows beasts may be all around him. Maybe even some human would hurt him. The wind blows the grass and perhaps shakes the stump.

But he sits there, never removing the blindfold. It was the only way he can be a Man.

Finally, after a horrific night, the sound of the night disappears.

He feels the warmth of the sun. He removes his blindfold.

It was then that he sees his father - sitting on the stump next to him

- on watch the entire night.

We are never alone. Even when we do not know it, our Father in Heaven is protecting us. He is sitting on the stump beside us.

All we have to do is take off our blindfolds.