Even though he was blindfolded, the young Xhosa teenage boy was excited. He was going to be a man as he walked behind his father on the small but windy path that led to the Happy Hill Forest.

He was required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He could not express fear nor cry out for help to anyone at any point neither must he remove the blindfold until the morning comes.

It was a one-day tough journey to manhood, but Andile was determined to make it up the hill and return back. But at the moment, his father presence meant the world to him, even though he would be left alone by himself in few minutes.

Baba Loveday and his teenage son had travelled all the day to arrive at the small hill overseeing Alice the university town where Fort Hare University was located. Although it was a dread journey for the young man, it was a trip full of stories of heroic past of the country.

“Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe were here. They schooled here,” the father told the son.

“Really, wow! Andile exclaimed suppressing his pains as glanced around the village that now laid beneath them. His heart palpated with fear of spending the night alone in the bush. But he was willing to go through with it.

“As your granny has told you a lot many times before, this practice is unique to our family only. I did it. My father, your grandfather did. His father before him did it,” Baba Loveday lectured the young man.

“Once you survive the night, you become a MAN, and the whole family will welcome you into manhood with a special party. And I, your father, will slaughter a full grown cow, like my father did for me,” Baba Loveday promised.

Andile beamed. The thought of a whole cow warmed his heart. But he could not shake off the butterfly growing in his belly as his father prepared to leave all alone on the hill for his night of transition from boy to man.

Andile knew he could not tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad from the family must come into manhood on his own.

Baba Loveday bid his son goodbye and descended the hill. Andile watched with trepidation as he father disappeared into the woods and the setting sun.

He sang. He prayed. He laid down. He stood up.

Then, the night came.

Andile was naturally terrified of the dark, but with the blindfold on his face he had been in the dark since he got to the hill earlier in the evening. He could hear all kinds of noises of animals and strange voices of birds. Wild beasts must surely be all around him, he thought to himself.

Maybe even some humans may show up from the bush thickets might to hurt him. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.

He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

What can we learn from this story?
Just like the boy, we, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."