One of my favorite remembrances of my father was his love of maps and travel. We would sit at the table and he would pull out this old atlas and show us the places he had been and what roads he had traveled. (Much to our family’s dismay, he loved to take the back roads sometimes taking hours longer, claiming this way you would get to see more of the country!)
In the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He called his disciples to put away their old life or old way of thinking and follow Him. He shared stories that gave them directions he pointed out markers that gave them knowledge and assured them that like a good shepherd, he would find them if they got lost. But then soon, He was telling them that He was going away. What? How will we know the way? Will we get lost? How do we know what is accurate?
I’m sure the disciples felt much like my father did when GPS came out. My dad had a hard time trusting its accuracy and worried he would get lost using it. A voice guiding him on which road to take or where to make the next turn didn’t seem as reliable as the physical map that he had used for so many years.
My dad had so studied maps that if you were headed on a trip pretty much anywhere, he could give you the exact highway numbers, turns, curves and stops without even looking at a map but would pull out that atlas just to reassure you this information was accurate. I loved listening to his stories of specific markers along the road, the people he met and about when the car broke down or construction caused a detour or a road had closed and he had to turn around and find another way. He loved remembering the places he had traveled to but he also loved sharing about where he wanted to go in the future.
We aren’t given a physical map or a GPS in the journey of life. However, we do have someone who showed us The Way. In His Word, we find Truth. And by following the One who loves us and taught us to love, we have Life.
Julie Robinson, Executive Director Studio 222
