My great-grandson, Chris, and I, mighty explorers that we are, took a trek through the woods next door. He is all of 4 years old, and I am—well, I guess you don't need to know everything.

The property next door was sold recently and the previous week the surveyors were marking the property boundaries. I wanted to see where the line was. Chris saw me over in the woods, and he wanted to come along.

Chris is about two and a half feet taller than a grasshopper and I—well, I'm just a few feet taller, and I could see my house over the blackberry brambles.

We trudged through blackberry vines, vine maple, blackberry vines, alder, twigs and more blackberry vines. It was harder to walk through than I thought it would be, but we kept going.

Poor Chris—all he could see was the around, and he thought we were hopelessly lost.

"We'll never get out of here!" "I'll never get home!" "I'll never see my mommy again!"

I comforted him the best I could and told him, yes, we would make it home, and he would see his mommy.

I started thinking about the times I had faced problems that seemed insurmountable, thinking the problem would never end and that there was no way out.

But I need to remember God sees the big picture, and He is in control. He can see over and around the problems to see the solutions.

When I think of this, a few scriptures come to mind:

"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19).

We must have walked about 150 feet down the line through lots of stuff. We both fell and, of course, when I fell Chris laughed.

I could see our property about 12 feet to my left, so we started off that way. Chris couldn't see it until we were about two feet away. Then he said, "Oh you brought me to my property!" He was happy (I was too).

"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).