The Narrow Trail

By Virginia Smith

In Utah’s Wasatch Mountains just east of Salt Lake City there’s a trail I love to hike. It’s called Donut Falls. I drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon and leave my car at a small and often crowded parking area, lace up my hiking boots and take off. There are two trails – the first is wide enough for a car, though no vehicles are permitted up there. It is easy, with a gentle grade and few rocks littering the way. It’s a beautiful hike and leads to the top of the falls where I can see the donut, a giant flat rock with a round hole where thousands of gallons of rushing mountain water pour through.

The second trail isn’t so easy. It’s narrow, steep, and often jagged. I stop periodically to catch my breath, and at one place I have to climb down a six-foot muddy ledge, holding on to tree roots for balance. But it’s worth the extra effort, because the narrow trail ends below the falls instead of above it. All that water pours through the hole above me and thunders into a sheltered pool, refreshing me with a cool mountain spray as it rushes past me over a stunning rocky creek bed. The view from that angle takes my breath away. It’s well worth the struggle to get there.

Jesus spoke of a difficult road we must take, one that leads to life. It is not as easy as the wide road, but I like to think it’s like the narrow trail to Donut Falls. What waits for us at the end is well worth the effort.

PRAYER: Lord, I might need your help over a rocky place today. Please keep my feet on the narrow road.

“But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it,” Matthew 7:14 NET. 

Today’s devotion is by Virginia Smith, the author of over a dozen novels including Stuck in the Middle, which was a finalist for the 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year award, and the upcoming Third Time’s a Charm. Learn more about Ginny and her books at www.VirginiaSmith.org.