Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | For years my mother faithfully subscribed to the homemaker’s Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I used to look forward to turning to the last page of each issue to read a column that Bill Vaughan wrote under the penname Burton Hillis.  His witty observations of everyday life touched a warm spot in the hearts of his readers.

In one feature, he gave insights into his own boyhood when he wrote the following:

“It is only a little farther,” my father used to say when I was a little boy, winded and leg weary, out on the long Sunday afternoon walks that we used to take together. So I would brace up and struggle on a little longer, looking for the first familiar landmarks that would indicate we were back in our own neighborhood.

One day Burton asked his father how far “a little farther” really was. “It is farther than you can see,” he replied, “but not as far as you can go.”[1]

Like the walks Burton’s father planned, the destination God sets before us is often beyond our sight. We can’t see over the ridge or around the bend to where He is taking us. We can’t tell how much farther we have to go before we reach home. But when we are walking with Him, we can trust Him that the goal is not beyond our reach, for He is with us every step of the way.

Isaiah wrote, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). “Those who hope in the Lord…will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:31).

Perhaps the goal you’ve been working towards seems so far away, and you wonder if you will ever get there. God knows your limitations. Keep going a little farther—perhaps farther than you can see, but not as far as you can go—with your hand in God’s.

[1] Burton Hillis, Better Homes and Gardens, volume unknown.