Terror By Night

The night was cold and crisp. The near full moon allowed an almost daylight view of the immediate snowscape. Our snowshoes moved easily over the partly packed trail. It was the month before I turned sixteen and it would be my last winter camping expedition with the Boys Scouts of Canada. Winter camping found us in a very rough log cabin with a fireplace and a barrel woodstove that had to be watched in two hour shifts by two scouts throughout the whole night. Since I was the eldest, I was dispatched by the scout master to retrieve three younger boys at the concession road which was about a mile down the trail. A parent was driving them to be met at the road’s end by our escort which consisted of myself and two other boys closer to my age.

The trek out to the road had been uneventful. Our feet were beginning to hurt a bit as the cold temperature started to penetrate our high cut moccasins. As we headed back toward the camp, the boy at the end of the line said with some alarm, “There is something back there!” I had been in the lead, but now snow shoed back to assure him that his imagination was playing tricks on him. In order to prove my point, I shone my flashlight into the trees beside the trail behind us. The light was immediately reflected back at me by six pairs of yellow glowing eyes which I instantly realized belonged to six timber wolves. The pack was stopped as we were and peered at us from a distance of about seventy-five feet. All of the boys saw the sight and indeed now we could see the pack rather clearly without the use of a flashlight. I suppressed my own terror and told the others to keep moving. I tried yelling and waving my arms to scatter our unwelcome escort. They did not move. As soon as we started to move as a group, so did they. They maintained the seventy-five foot distance with an eerie accuracy. Intellectually I knew that they would not attack as long as we remained upright, in a group and moving. Knowing something intellectually and living through the fear are two different things. I told the boys in front of me with as much confidence as I could muster that indeed they would not attack strong looking upright individuals in a group. Our subsequent safe arrival at the camp was the longest three quarters of a mile in my life. The pack followed us to within exactly seventy-five feet of the door. It goes without saying that the batteries in my flashlight were absolutely dead as we arrived at the door.

At the time, so many years ago, I did not have any comfort from the Word of God to rely upon. There are many verses in the Bible that provide comfort in difficult circumstances. My favourite Psalm is the one that directly addresses fear and dread. Psalm 91 reads as follows:

1 ¶ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. (Psalm 91: 1-6)

We are reminded to not even fear the “terror by night” or the “pestilence that walks in darkness” because our God is our protector, our fortress and our refuge. I love the last four verses of Psalm 91. If we know and acknowledge His name, he promises to deliver and honour us. That is what I call comfort.



13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation." (Psalm 91: 13-16)

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