“I will be as a wall of fire round about her and the glory in the midst of her”

Once there was an old teacher.  To her young student one day she said, “You seem afraid.”  The student affirmed, “I am about to launch out into the deep in a coracle with no oars.  The seas are wide and dark.  The otherlands are completely unknown to me.  I have no wealth and no weapons to protect me.  Must I go?”

The old woman gathered her robes around her and walked to the edge of the waters where a small hide boat bobbed, waiting on its tether for its pilgrim.  After a time of watching the sun polish the waters to brassy brightness, she spoke:

“Fear is ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’ is it not?”

“Yes, teacher.”

“You ask if you must go.  I ask you that question.  Must you go?”

The student sighed.  “I have been called.  Yes, I must go.”

The teacher sighed as well.  “It has been said that he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.  Do you believe this?”

“I do believe it.”

“Then?”

But there was no reply, for the student had launched into the deep, and as she was taken by the current, the teacher could hear her singing:  “And I will be as a wall of fire round about her and the glory in the midst of her.”

The old woman on the shore whispered, “Amen.”