When I was around 6 or 7 years old, my sister gave me and my niece (who was only a year a half younger than me) bows and arrows. The arrows weren't real arrows of course ... they were plastic with little rubber suction cups on the tips. Each bow and arrow set came with a white plastic target ... my niece and I decided pretty quickly that it was way more fun to shoot the arrows at each other than some dull piece of plastic with numbers painted on it. The arrows didn't hurt and the suction cups didn't stick to us ... unless ... we licked them and then aimed for each other's foreheads. But then we upped the game ... we figured out how to remove the little suction cups drom the tips of the arrows. Yep, that's right ... my niece and I turned those harmless little plastic arrows into some pretty decent weapons ... it's a wonder one of us didn't lose an eye.
When I was 11 years old, I went to a summer camp sponsored by the YMCA ... without question one of the most fun summers I ever had. Besides having an enormous crush on one of the counselors (who actually kissed me goodbye when camp ended), I learned how to shoot a real arrow from a real bow and hit a real target. It didn't take long for me to become enamored with the sport of archery ... so much so that I practiced every day and ended up winning first place in the archery contest at the end of the summer. While I'd like to tell you that I won first place because I was such an excellent archer, that wasn't the case at all ... I was actually a pretty lousy shot and missed the target way more than I hit it, and I never once hit the bulls-eye. I only won the contest because the other kids were worse shots than I was ... it wasn't my skill that won me the 1st-place trophy, it was sheer dumb luck and nothing more.
A gal in my office wears a necklace with an arrow on it, and today another gal asked her if there was a special meaning behind the gold chain and arrow. Her answer has been swirling around in my mind all evening ... "Before an arrow can fly forward, it has to be pulled back." I was instantly struck by the profound truth in her words ... truth that goes way beyond an arrow ... truth that I need to tuck deep within my soul and never forget it. So many times I grumble and complain about taking one step forward and then what feels like a million steps back ... I grumble and complain when I should be doing just the opposite. If I want to fly forward ... if I want to soar toward the target ... if I want to grow and learn and become who God desires for me to be ... I have to be willing to be stretched, tested and pulled back before I can fly forward.
Here's the thing ... an arrow can't fly unless the bow propels it forward ... I'll leave you to ponder on that for a while ... trust me, it's worth a few ponders. Maybe, just maybe, the legend of the arrow pales in comparison to the legend of the bow.
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