The darkened path.

Ancient Macrocarpa tree pathway; Otago Peninsula. 

High on the windswept peninsular that forms part of the harbor of one of New Zealand’s oldest cities, Dunedin, there is a scene that could be straight from a “B” grade horror movie. Within walking distance of a supposedly haunted castle there is track that wanders through an avenue of ancient macrocarpa trees, which even on a sunny day are eerily shadowy and dank. 

Seldom does any birdsong disturb the almost sepulchral silence, and if the baying of wolves was heard, it would come as no surprise! When the early morning mist filters any available light the scene is complete.    

The feeling of isolation is intense, even when walking with a group; and it’s not until you reach the end of the track that the hairs on the back of your neck settle again. But the weirdness does not end there… just past this “disenchanted forest” lie the ruins of the house that was once the reason anyone traveled this track in the first place. Beyond this tumbledown, weather-beaten skeleton, across bleak and wild paddocks the peninsular abruptly ends in high cliffs; cliffs that fall away to wild and cold waters of the South Pacific; the ocean is empty from this point until you reach Antarctica, thousands of kilometers to the south.  

Lovers Leap, Otago Peninsular

It was from these very cliffs that two young lovers ended their lives together, more than one hundred years ago, when their employer- (the rapidly descending into insanity)- and owner of the now "haunted" castle prohibited them to marry. They chose to jump into oblivion, rather than spend their temporal existences in enforced solitude. Their stepping-off point into eternity is now known by the rather obvious, but somewhat quixotic name of “Lovers Leap”.

I have walked this tack several times, and have often pondered what thoughts must have gone through their minds and just what they talked about that dark night when they crept away from the servant’s quarters and trekked the loneliest walk imaginable. When they were found a day or two later, their bodies were still locked together in their fatal embrace. Sadly, even in death they were denied the chance to rest together. Their pitiless employer, devoid of any human warmth, arranged to have them buried in separate graveyards.

In what some might describe as karma, this man, who became a Member of Parliament in New Zealand's fledgling government, facing bankruptcy and ruin, ended his own life with the aid of a revolver.   

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Galatians 6:7 ESV

Countless millions of souls have walked a similar darkened path, and likewise leapt into an eternity devoid of hope! Unaware, or usually, just not caring that their Creator had also walked His darkened path on their behalf, they simply failed to see beyond their earthly existence into the brightest future imaginable.

Jesus said… “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me”. John 14:6

Such words, in our age of “tolerance” and "equality" sound out of place, arrogant even. The popular line of thought in our society is to accept all religions as equal and valid. Yet what Jesus said goes totally against that.

Since the Garden of Eden mankind has asked, “Did God really say…?” yet here it is, categorically stated! Humanity’s thirst for God, which has resulted in the creation of all sorts of religions and spiritual practices, can only be quenched in the person of Jesus Christ. 

He is the source of living water and eternal life. All other “sources” are but dry and stony beds. Only a relationship with Jesus can satisfy a person’s innate desire for God. Nothing else will fill the hole in the human spirit, nothing else will satisfy the thirst that unsaved humanity tries to quench with anything and everything but the living water of life!
 
And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.  Revelation 22:1 MKJV