Friday, May 18, 2018

The scenic route

I was with my northern California son and family for the Mother's Day weekend. They have bought a beautiful little farm outside their city.  In the city they minister to lots and lots of people, many of whom are ensnared in the results of man's disobedience to God. Now they can enjoy His peaceful handiwork a couple of days a week and hopefully extend their days on this earth.

I traveled by Amtrak. The TV commercials that market that rail line picture a sleek, silver-colored double-decker that curves around snow-capped mountains, slipping through tunnels that run parallel to rippling rivers, flanked on both sides by cascading waterfalls.

The terrain outside my Amtrak window was somewhat different. We barreled through thirty-foot high piles of discarded scrap -iron, acres of wrecked cars and rusted-out obsolete oil equipment. We cut through a half-dozen junk yards, then through the back yards of homeowners who can't sell their houses for half the price they paid. To say the route was "colorless" doesn't quite explain why I pulled the curtains and settled back for a nap. 

I am the mother and grandmother to a Christian family  I am a surrogate mother to many Christian children. Every day we travel through the broken ruins of this world. How do we stay sane in the midst of such hopelessness?   We can't just "pull the curtain" and pretend that the world is all beautiful like the Amtrak commercial.  You know the answer:  Be His Light in the darkness.  Because HE lives, WE LIVE also.

Love, Jo






























ARCHIVE