Hinds’ Feet on High Places is a Christian classic, an allegory in the same vein as The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Hinds’ Feet on High Places
By Hannah Hurnard
Tyndale Momentum
1955 (this edition 1979)
Much-Afraid is a young woman from the Fearing family, with crippled feet and a crooked mouth. She serves the Chief Shepherd, and when He invites her to leave the valley and go up to the High Places, He gives her two companions for the journey: Sorrow and Suffering. The road is hard, and it rarely goes the way she expects. By the end she is transformed and given a new name, Grace and Glory.
The main takeaway for me is that her suffering was part of God’s plan all along. It drew her closer to Him and showed her who He really is. The point of the journey isn’t the destination. It’s to know God, love Him, and spend time with Him.
We want life to be easier now, and when we don’t get that, we assume God is far away. But He’s closest in those times, and He allows them. Jesus says as much in John 9:1–3:
“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” (John 9:1–3, NIV)
That’s hard for Christians in a rich, first-world society. We tend to expect money, prosperity and health, as if they’re blessings we’ve earned or come with being a special nation. The Bible, and this book, remind us that’s not how God works. This world is more like a tutorial. Real life is what comes next.
It’s a really good reminder of the different ways God might work in our lives, and a valuable lesson.
