Following the Invisible Thread

In George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin, young Princess Irene discovers her mysterious great-great-grandmother living in a hidden tower room. The grandmother gives Irene a gift — a ring tied to an invisible thread. She tells the girl that whenever she is lost or afraid, she need only follow the thread, and it will lead her to safety.

The test comes sooner than expected. When Irene follows the thread into the darkness beneath the mountain, it does not lead her along comfortable paths. It pulls her through cold streams, into narrow crevices, and deeper into the goblin mines — exactly the direction any sensible person would refuse to go. Everything in her screams to turn back. But she holds the thread and keeps walking.

And the thread proves faithful. It leads her straight to her friend Curdie, trapped in the goblin caverns, and then guides them both home.

MacDonald, who profoundly influenced C.S. Lewis, understood something essential about trust: it is not tested on the easy road. Trust means following when the path makes no sense to us — when God leads us through the valley, not around it.

The Psalmist knew this: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." The thread does not promise a comfortable journey. It promises a faithful destination.

The Almighty does not always explain the path. But He has never once let go of the thread.