And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. (Isa. 35:8)
When traveling, you can find more than one way to get from point A to point B. An all-terrain four-wheeler splashes through streams and navigates around room-size boulders on a barely-there mountain trail to get to the destination. A pickup truck roils clouds of dust and plows through walls of tumbleweeds as it charges down a dirt path on its way to the sale barn. An SUV maneuvers through stop-and-go traffic choked by thousands of other commuters at rush hour. Easing the four-door sedan through the toll booth and onto the turnpike or interstate implies one will reach the destination in the most efficient way possible. One can get from here to there eventually whether the route is a trail, path, street, lane, boulevard, alley, or autobahn.
While my wife often prefers to use less-traveled two-lane state highways to get to our destination, most often I want to get to where I’m going ASAP—as efficiently and quickly as possible with minimal muss and fuss. As far as I am concerned, interstates always trump two-lane county roads.
In today’s reading the power of metaphor is harnessed to teach us that entrusting ourselves, without reservation, to a gracious and holy God yields confident access to him. He becomes a gracious traveling companion on an open and beautiful highway, helping us skirt alleyways and avoid cul-de-sacs filled with potholes and obstacles of our own making.
Trust that God grants unreserved access to a confident journey with him.
Ed Rotz works with PastorServe, a coaching network to strengthen pastors. He served The Wesleyan Church for forty-five years as a pastor and district superintendent.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
