Child #2: “Mom, are we lost?”
Me: “I’m working on it.”
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Saturday morning. I had just missed the exit FM 149 to our swim meet……a large natatorium in the middle of a plethora of trees in a town I wasn’t familiar with. My right hand grasped the steering wheel. My left hand gripped the phone with the map displayed. I refrained from sharing the details of getting off-course. Kids + potential panic, not good. Yes, Mom is working on it. But God is working on this too.
Before the kids were up, I had come across John 1:1-5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot extinguish the light. How would this verse shine light in my life today? I would soon find out.
On Friday night, I didn’t miss the exit to the swim meet. But Saturday morning, I missed it, not realizing until it was too late. As I’m driving further away, the realization sinks in: I am stuck on this tollway with no idea how to get out.
It may have been light outside, but when you make a mistake, it feels dark inside.
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1. In the light, the way looks different from the dark.
2. In the light, we may feel like we were are in the dark.
3. In the light and darkness, we need God.
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As the worry creeps in, I suddenly spy an exit. Then on my cell phone map, I see a tiny line (road) perpendicular to the tollway and leading towards the Natatorium. Directly straight to the Natatorium. For real? Yes. This tiny road, the tollway, and the road I had missed formed a triangle.
An imperfect triangle that only a perfect God could have drawn.
Can the darkness extinguish the Light? Never. We may feel we missed the road, make mistakes, and meander from the map. But the road we are riding is never out of His sight. A detour to God just means we need Him more.
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Leaving the hotel parking lot, I had prayed with the kids that God would keep us safe. Yet we still wandered off-course. Does the presence of God mean the absence of getting lost? No. But it does mean that if we get lost, He will find us and bring us back to His will.
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The circumstances we hope may differ from the outcome we predicted. The certainty we hold becomes dimmer in the dark. The conditions we handle may not pan out as planned. But the conviction of our faith to trust God grow after we see His hand lead us past the darkness within the light.
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Tolkien wrote, “Not all who wander are lost.”
Indeed in Christ, all who wander off will be found. All who miss the road will get to the destination God planned. If it’s dark to man, it’s still light to Jesus.
After the kids go inside the Natatorium, with warm heat filling up the car, I pull out my flower Bible from the dashboard for a few minutes. John 1 pops up again. Could it be? Same message twice. The light can never be extinguished, can it?