We're Going On A Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury

Before I read this book to my children, I used to sing it round the Brownie campfire. 10 year old me loved the stupidity of it all from the start - why go looking for a bear? This thought only deepened as I read it to my children - why would you let children do this without appropriate supervision... or at least a gun?

For those unfamiliar, here's the synopsis...

A group of children set off on a sunny afternoon in search of  bear. Along the way they encounter several changes in terrain in which the now familiar phrase is found...

"Oh no! We can't go over it, we can't go under it, we've got to go through it"

It's a wild ride. And in it we find a great fundamental human truth about ourselves - there are some things we have to go through. You can't go around them, or under them, through is the only way past them.

We are such small beings. We have very little control over our lives and through the course of it we find that we have very little influence over... well, anything!

We come across difficulties, circumstances, situations in which we are desperate not to have to go through. We don't want to endure. We want to avoid please. The pain is too much. The change that we will undertake too large. All of it just too big. And yet we are pushed through it - squeezed and bumped, tossed and shaken, all the way through to the other side. And we emerge, muddy, sweating and possibly missing a shoe.

The Bible doesn't shy away from this fact of human existence. It knows how small and powerless we ultimately are in the universe. Look at the life of any of the Bible characters and you will see them "going though it". 

Joseph - betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit  - had to go through it.

Job - lost his home, his wealth, his children and did all with the sound of idiotic friends ringing in his ears - had to go through it.

Ruth - lost her husband, her father-in-law and faced a famine leaving her to essentially beg for her living - had to go through it.

Esther - kidnapped, and placed in a position which could get her killed at any moment - had to go through it.

David - promised a kingship that took 20 years to come to pass, all the while, the predecessor tried to kill him, many times - had to go through it.

Who ever you look at in the Bible the path was never smooth, the road never straight forward, and yet we are told this...

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Deuteronomy 31v8

We have to go through it, but God goes first. There is a beautiful picture in the

Bear Hunt whereby the older boy has to carry the littlest one, and  nothing is truer than for those who follow Jesus. We have a  deep confidence that in any and all situations we are never left to go it alone. The sweat and the tears are seen and cared for by a Saviour who walks beside us. 

So often we feel like we are on a Bear Hunt, plodding onwards over streams and rivers, bogs and tall grass. Wondering why we set out in the first place, wondering if this time, we really may encounter a bear. These are the facts of life this side of eternity.

 "We can't go over it, we can't go under it. Oh no, we've got to go through it"

What joy to know we don't go alone.