Explain how Hannah Hurnard's Hinds' Feet on High Places is an allegory and what it stands for allegorically.
Hannah Hurnard’s ‘Hinds Feet on High Places’ is an allegory that represents what happens when a person seeks Christ and becomes a Christian. The story begins with Much-Afraid, a young shepherdess who works for the Chief Shepherd. Much-Afraid has a heart that desires to serve the Chief Shepherd, but she also has some deformities and flaws that keep her from serving him in the way that she wants. She is crippled, ugly, and comes from a family of Fearings. Allegorically, Much-Afraid represents how a new Christian or a non-Christian who wants to know God is kept from knowing Him through their fear and their own sense of their sin. She represents a person who wants to know God but who doesn’t exactly know how they can find Him, relate to Him, or be changed as a result of knowing Him.
In addition to these internal struggles, Much Afraid has some outside forces that make it difficult for her to follow the Chief Shepherd, especially her family, who each allegorically represent a different kind of fear or a different kind of insecurity that can keep someone from experiencing God in a real way.
In the story, Much-Afraid’s family wants her to marry her cousin, Craven Fear. Much-Afraid does not want this but is too frightened to do anything about it. Finally, she seeks the Chief-Shepherd at his watering place, and he tells her that he wants to rescue her from this marriage and bring her to the High Places, where perfect love casts out fear. Allegorically, this represents the time that a person does not want to be married to the sinful and secular things of the world, but still does not know how to escape the temptations of the world… and in a way, the person becomes nearly paralyzed. However, finally, the person can seek God through prayer or through the scripture, and they can find the promise that He will bring us to the High-Places, which means that He will bring us to a place where our fears and sin cannot touch us and where we can be cleansed and purified.
When Much-Afraid meets with the Shepherd, He tells her that she first must change her name and also have the flower of Love in her heart. This flower of Love allegorically represents our belief in Christ’s love and sacrifice on the cross for our sins—and the need to change our name represents the time when we are re-born after we become a Christian. Much- Afraid is afraid to receive this flower of love because she thinks that pain comes with love, but this is because she believes that the love the Chief Shepherd is referring to is romantic love, and not what it really is, which is unconditional love. When Much Afraid realizes that this love is safe to receive, she asks the Chief Shepherd for the seed of love, and he plants it in her heart. He takes the seed out of his heart and puts it in his palm. This seed is shaped exactly like a thorn—so allegorically it represents Christ’s death on the cross for our sins. When she receives the seed, it gives her pain, but soon the pain fades into a great sense of sweetness, and she slowly starts to become more lovely. The Chief Shepherd tells her that now that she has this seed of love, even when he is not with her, he can always hear her whenever she speaks to him. This allegorically represents how sometimes, Christians may feel that they are separated from God but when they call out to Him, they realize that He is there for them.
Much-Afraid leaves the Chief Shepherd so that she can prepare to go with Him to the High Places, and before she leaves, the Chief Shepherd tells her that she must not tell anybody about it and that He will call to her with a secret song when it is time to go. When she hears this song, she should meet with him at their secret meeting place. As Much-Afraid is walking home, she sees Craven Fear standing in her path. He torments her and starts to hurt her, but just then, the Chief Shepherd comes and his very presence makes Craven Fear flee. When the Chief Shepherd leaves, Much-Afraid is filled with guilt because she did not call on the Shepherd’s name when Craven Fear was attacking her, and because of that, she was torn and bruised by him. She is ashamed and doubts whether she is worthy to make it to the High Places. This allegorically symbolizes how after we become Christians, we are filled with hope and forget that we still have sin in our lives—so when we fall into our sin again, we are filled with guilt and feel like we are not worthy to be in the presence of God. We do not understand how God extends grace to us and how His grace protects us from being completely destroyed by our sin or fear.
The next morning, Much Afraid wakes without fear and is filled with joy, hope, and song for the day ahead. However, as the day progressed, her house was filled with all her Fearing relatives and they all tried to convince her that a marriage to Craven Fear would not be so bad. They closed the door to her house and locked it—and just at that time, the Chief Shepherd came out singing his song. She wanted to answer his call, but then her cousin Coward grabbed her and suffocated her so that she fainted and could not leave to answer the Shepherd’s call. The family of Fearings decided that they should stay in her home overnight. Much Afraid slowly regained her senses, and she ran desperately to her window and called for the help of Mrs. Valiant. Mrs. Valiant came running and threatened the Family of Fearings by letting them know that she would call the Chief Shepherd if they did not leave. The family fled the house and Mrs. Valiant comforted Much Afraid and told her to rest since it was too late to meet the Chief Shepherd at the trysting place. The way that Much Afraid’s family kept her from meeting the Shepherd allegorically represents how our fears can keep us from coming to him—and the way that Mrs. Valiant rescues Much Afraid represents how Christ gives us bravery to overcome these fears so that we can continually seek to meet him and not let one failure define who we are.
That night, Much Afraid woke suddenly, and she realized that even though it was late, she must run to the Shepherd no matter what. She left her house and began searching for him— finally she came to the sheep folds, and two shepherds stopped her. She asked them where the Chief Shepherd was, and they told her that the Chief Shepherd had left to go into the mountains. Much Afraid was filled with despair, but then she wondered if maybe he was waiting for her at their secret meeting place. She turned from the watchmen and ran to the meeting place. There, at the meeting place, the Chief Shepherd was waiting for her. She fell at his feet and begged him, saying “Take me with you. Don’t leave me behind.” The Chief Shepherd, instead of being angry at her, gently told her that he knew she would come, and that his song to her had only told her to meet him at sunrise. He told her that she was not late, and that he was leaving for the High Places with her. She told him that she would follow him anywhere. He took her by the hand and they began their journey into the mountains.
This last part of the story allegorically represents how once we have Christ within us, we might think that we can wait to talk to Him and meet Him, but these thoughts do not last long. We feel a strong desire to run to Him and be in His presence, even though we may run to Him limping, wounded, and imperfect. The most wonderful thing about all of this though is not how we run to Him, but how He ALWAYS receives us with love and not with anger. He does not punish us, but instead, accepts us as we are. He accepts us no matter what our state and brings us near Him, so that He can lead us to the highest place—a place that is without fear and filled with his unconditional love.
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