This way, that way?

A rural road about thirty miles away has more kinks that a snake with a tummy ache.  Directional signs abound to warn drivers of tight curves. One is such a hairpin that it merits two signs, pointing at each other.  The right one warns drivers coming up, the left ones, drivers going down. I always smile when I see the two seemingly contradictory arrows.

I wonder if the signs might symbolize something far more serious in spiritual terms. Jesus declared that He was the one-way-only sign:  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Problem is, people have switched some signs on life’s route.

Some say, “All religions lead to God.”  (Hmm, Jesus said He was the only way.)

Or, “If I’m good enough, without any of the really bad sins, God should let me into heaven.”  (Sorry, I’ve read Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”).

I’ve heard, “I’ve figured out my own type of religion.”  Hmmm.  “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

 

The day I took this photo, road crews were out removing overhanging branches that could break and snarl traffic when the snows come.  Flaggers stood at appropriate distances to direct one-way traffic as just-cut debris was loaded onto trucks. I’m glad they were there! For some reason, I thought of another scriptural “go-this-way” passage—one that encouraged me to keep trusting God when life’s challenges left me confused and doubting.  Isaiah wrote it to his nation to remind the people of God’s compassion and desire that they follow only Him. The principles of God’s trustworthiness encouraged me, too:

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ (Isaiah 30:21)

Through this, God reminded me that He is my “lead car” or flagger in life’s inevitable interruptions and detours. He is the Way, the only safe way.

Like the stars forever

This is my “Daniel 12:2-3” plant. Through spring and summer, I water a pitiful collection of chopped-off stems in my front-door planter, hoping petunias will cover them over.  But by fall, those dead sticks have pushed out leaves and buds. By late October I’m treated to an explosion of color. Like stars in profusion picked up by powerful telescopes, they spill out of the planter in happy brilliance.  It’s quite a sight.

So what’s this about Daniel 12?  Here are the verses:
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.  Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

The book of Daniel is a mix of biography and prophecy. What encouragement to read of a godly man who refused to compromise his faith, even as he lived under the authority of corrupt kings and civil authorities!  And what an awesome exercise to work through the predictions of world history that have happened, and will yet happen.

This particular “end-times” prophecy is the Bible’s first mention of “everlasting life,” though a few other Old Testament passages referred to a “resurrection.”  For the most part, the afterlife was given shadowy terms, like “Sheol.” But David caught a vision of something more-and-better in one of his psalms:

For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow Your Holy One to see corruption.  You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.(Psalm 16:10-11)

Isaiah, whose prophecies reach far forward to a Messiah, wrote:

He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces. (Isaiah 25:8)

“Fullness of joy”! My exploding bush says it in a plant-sort-of-way. “Pleasures forevermore”—oh, to anticipate it. But it’s not a given for everyone. I wonder if Daniel looked around at his fellow exiles and idolatrous neighbors and grieved for the spiritual deadness he saw—those destined for eternal “shame and everlasting contempt.”

I’d rather be on the bright side of eternal life, shining for Jesus Christ! How about you?

Golden hope

I only have to look across the street to know that the summer is past, and the winter is coming.  Half a year ago, my neighbor’s tree burst into a froth of pink to herald spring. With autumn, it’s a bristle of orange leaves, having dropped its pesky little knobs of crabapples. We’ve watched its turns of the seasons for decades. Recently, that blast of orange said something else to me:

For everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die.

If you’re like me, you’ve heard those couplets from Ecclesiastes 3 many times. They’ve become timeworn in overuse and their context forgotten.  Kind of like First Corinthians 13, the “Love Chapter,” often recited amidst candles and flowers at weddings without a nod to its context of spiritual unruliness.

The traditional author, King Solomon, through acclaimed as “wise,” also made poor choices in amassing wives and wealth. In this passage I’m hearing a sigh that what the world calls “happiness” won’t last forever.

But the Bible doesn’t end at Ecclesiastes.  It ends at Revelation.  With Christ returning again!  And with, for those who have died, a time to be raised to eternal life.

As I write this, we’re anticipating a call to announce that grandchild number three, a little girl expected by our daughter and husband, has arrived. A time to be born!  But within this past week, three older people I cared about experienced that “time to die.” I’m grateful that all of them lived fully for Jesus. One, aware that death would come soon as her kidneys failed, even called in her social friends and asked them plainly, “Will I see you in Heaven?  Have you accepted Jesus?”

Is that a question you can answer in the affirmative?

Double illumination

Because my husband was once part of an international layman’s Bible distribution ministry, we tend to check drawers for Bibles when we rent a room at motels. We weren’t disappointed during a recent overnight stay. But there was something else in the drawer: a “light stick” for emergencies. That made sense for a remote facility where winds or heavy snow could take down the power grid for a time.

I’m not quite sure of the chemistry behind them, but they apparently glow enough to help you find your way around.  The good side is they don’t rely on batteries. The bad: they’re disposable.  One used, they must be tossed, never to light up again. As soon as I saw the light-stick, I thought of one of my first Bible memory verses.  Perhaps you already guessed:

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Written before electric lights, flashlights, or even chemical light wands, the Bible has many references to light. Among them:

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. (Psalm 19:8)
The entrance of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130)
For these commands are a lamp, their teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life. (Proverbs 6:23)

Jesus called Himself “the Light of the World” (John 8:12). The apostle John, his understanding of spiritual truths shaped by the Light of Jesus, made frequently used the analogy:

This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)

Here’s an idea.  Take your Bible and a highlighter (the waxy type, sold in bookstores, doesn’t bleed through thin paper). Highlight all the references to “light” in the book of 1 John. Then go over to Revelation 22:5, which is the vision of Heaven John received:

There will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.

 It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around that.  I won’t need my Bible in heaven!  All confusion and mysteries will be past, and what is now just a shadow will be fully known in the blazing, glorious presence of God Himself!

PERSONAL NOTE:
This week our family experienced a special "light": the birth of a granddaughter named "Eleanor," which coincidently means "light."  What a joy to hold this little one born to our daughter and husband, marvel at God's creative power in the womb, and anticipate what's ahead.  She's our third "grand" after two boys, now 3 1/2 and 22 months, born to our son and wife.  Because I married later in life, it's an extraordinary privilege to live to "grandparent" and influence another generation.