Ch. 17 Summary and Thoughts of Hinds’ Feet on High Places
Chapter 17 Summary
This week we're in chapter 17 of Hinds Feet on High Places. We ended off last week with Much-Afraid had bringing the offering to the stone altar at the edge of the high places and then falling asleep. She wakes up at the beginning of this chapter in a cave and covered in cloth and sweet smelling spices. These are the things that a body would be buried with. But she is awake, so she walks out and she's by herself for the first time in the book. Sorrow and Suffering are not near. The Great Shepherd is not there. No enemies to be seen or heard from. And it's just her and the birds singing in this peaceful setting; the sun is shining, there's flowers everywhere. Then she sees the stone altar that the priest had bound her on when she gave her offering and as she looks around, she sees a stream coming out from under the altar. It continues and gets bigger and then goes out over a cliff. She realizes that's where the mighty falls come from. They begin under that altar where she made her offering.
She felt drawn to the waters, so she went and took off the wrappings that she had on and bathed in the water and It felt like she was bathing in life. When she stepped out, she noticed her feet were not crooked anymore and then remembered that the Good Shepherd had talked about streams of healing water in the High Places. Her feet were now straight, but she still had a crooked mouth and disfigurements on her face that she needed to be healed for her to enter the Kingdom of Love. She went back into the healing stream and washed her face in the water and sure enough, when she looked back in the water at her reflection, the disfigurements were gone. She explains having such an overwhelming peace and for the first time she wasn't thinking about the future at all. She was so content and thankful to be there. So she spent more time there, bathing in the healing waters and sleeping some more then bathing again. Then when the sun set it says that she went back and had another deep dreamless sleep in the cave.
Chapter 17 Thoughts
What I find so interesting about this chapter is how the author decides to show us what happens in the process of Much-Afraid dying to herself and healing into her new self. The cave she wakes up in is reminiscent of Jesus being buried in a cave with wrappings and spices and then raising on the third day. She wasn't healed when she gave the offering and the author didn’t choose to have her just appear healed after being in the cave. She gave us this insight into that healing process during that time, during those few days for Much Afraid. An interesting detail to me is that Much-Afraid still had to choose to out herself in the healing streams to be healed.
Another thing that stands out to me in this chapter is that the mighty fall that goes all the way down to the valleys and that Much-Afraid had looked at with the Good shepherd many times on the journey, all started from under that altar. The mighty waterfall all originates from that place of dying to self and surrendering, giving full lordship to the Good shepherd and what he's asking. That fits really well with what we read about earlier when we first were introduced to the falls, the language of the water, and the joy that these water droplets expressed as they were falling down to the lowest places. I recommend turning back to read that over again because it lines up so well with knowing that the beginning of that mighty waterfall comes in this stream from under that altar. And it's also the same water that is the healing waters Much-Afraid. Our surrender leads to our healing. So beautiful and so true.
I look forward to continuing. We have only three chapters left but still exciting parts of Much Afraid's journey to discover. I hope you will join again next week and hope you're enjoying this as much as I am.
-Nadine
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18
