And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. [Isaiah 58:11 (ESV)]
On our recent visit to the Canadian Rockies, we had a delightful bus driver named Phil. At seventy, he’s logged thousands of miles. We were his eleventh tour of the summer and he knows the area like the back of his hand. Although kind and good-natured, Phil was just formidable enough that we wanted to obey his directions for fear of encountering his wrath. Clearly, he was the boss of the bus!
Phil told us of one tour director who didn’t understand that the man with the keys is the one in charge. After delivering her group to a scenic glacial lake, a forest fire caused the highway to be closed. When he told the tour director that the closure prevented their return to Jasper, she refused to believe him. When the bus was denied passage by the police, she insisted that her group was special and should be allowed to proceed in spite of the danger. Perhaps she didn’t understand the “fire” part of forest fire and that people and busses burn right along with trees. Realizing that the fire had stranded hundreds of tourists who would now need beds for the night, the experienced driver used his connections to reserve rooms for the group near Banff. When he told the director of his find, she was irate. “That’s my job!” she exclaimed, “You can’t do that!” Sure that she knew more than Phil, he was told to cancel their reservations. Of course, she had no connections, no rooms were available, and the accommodations they’d briefly had courtesy of Phil had been immediately snapped up by another tour. As a result of her pigheadedness, rather than spending the evening at a charming mountainside lodge, the group piled back on the bus. There is only one road between Jasper and Banff and, since it was impassable, the group had a ten hour drive across Alberta before arriving back in Jasper in the wee hours of the morning. Unappreciative of Phil’s efforts, the tour director had the gall to complain about him; the wild fire, road closure and the resulting fiasco were all his fault!
Phil’s story could be a parable of sorts. The experienced bus driver represents God. It is He who makes the rules, determines where we’ll go, and the length of our trip. He knows when we should slow down to enjoy the scenery, speed up to get somewhere, take a detour, or stop to take a rest. Knowledgeable and experienced, His first priority is the welfare of His people. Although He wants us to have a memorable journey, like Phil, God doesn’t want us to perish in an inferno. Unfortunately, we’re much like the headstrong tour director. When God says, “No!” we insist that the answer should be yes. When God offers a better alternative, we refuse to accept it because it’s not our idea. We miss out on blessings because we’re sure we know more than He. Moreover, we then have the nerve to complain about God’s plan when we’re the ones who refused to follow it!
That intractable tour director was a “Plan A” sort of person; no deviations allowed in her itinerary! Fortunately, ours was a “Plan B” guide; new to the tour, she listened to Phil. When he suggested a few itinerary changes that would make our trip more enjoyable, she happily conceded to his wisdom. A “Plan B” person knows that life rarely runs according to plan and that adjustments continually have to be made. Sometimes we need to stop to take a breath, run for shelter from a storm, or detour around danger. A “Plan B” person thinks of life as an adventure and trusts that God has a beautiful journey planned. Life’s delays and detours, while not what we expect or even want, must be embraced and enjoyed. If we’ll just accept His direction, God usually has something wonderful waiting right around the corner. He’s been running the world for a very long time. Trust Him; He’s taken people down this road before and knows exactly what He’s doing.
You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of it? [Hannah Whitall Smith]
Not all of us have the benefit of eighty years’ experience as did Moses when God called on him. Take David, for example, he was just a young shepherd boy when called on to become both warrior and king. Peter and John were fishermen; nothing in their backgrounds prepared them for their roles as Apostles and founders of a church. Mary was just a girl, in the town of Nazareth, engaged to be married to a local carpenter. What preparation did she have to become the mother of God? Gideon was a farmer, hiding from the Midianites in a wine press while threshing wheat, when God called to him. In fact, Gideon protested that, as the most insignificant member of the weakest clan, he couldn’t be the one to rescue Israel.
The eagle is mentioned more than any other bird of prey in the Bible. References are made to its swiftness of flight, ability to soar high in the air, excellent vision, the way it sets its nest in high places, and the strength of its wings. The above two verses about eagles, however, are more figurative than literal and have no scientific basis. Although mother eagles do hover over their young, they cannot carry them. A bald eagle’s lifting power is only about a third of its weight. An eaglet ready to fly is as heavy as its parents. If Mrs. Eagle tried to carry junior, they’d both fall! The second verse about being renewed like an eagle is probably connected to an ancient belief that every ten years the eagle disappeared into the sun, dove down into the sea with the setting sun, and emerged young again. There’s a similar urban myth that at 30 years of age, the eagle flies to a high mountain top and makes the difficult decision between death or the painful plucking out of all of its feathers and the destruction of its beak and talons. After waiting several months for everything to grow back again, it will be transformed and the refreshed bird will be able to live another 30 years. Not so; like the rest of us, when it’s time to grow old and die, the eagle has no choice. Like other birds, however, when the eagle molts, old worn feathers will drop and new ones will replace them.
Immanent and omniscient, God is everywhere and can see everything. When you think about it, that’s a bit disconcerting. Is God a voyeur who likes peeking at us in our most intimate moments? Is He similar to the paparazzi who try to capture celebrities in their most embarrassing ones? Like those ever-present security cameras or the traffic cop with his radar gun and ticket book, is He hoping to spot us doing something wrong or catch us breaking His law? My life is boring; why would God be interested in me?
The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone. [Acts 27:20 (NLT)]
Devotions of the Heart 