A woman was pulling a large suitcase in the road as we were driving home today.
I was with my 2 younger kids, when all of a sudden, I saw cars go around a woman pulling a large, black suitcase with retractable wheels.
On Fry Road. On a street that is normally not very busy right before lunch. It’s a stretch of the street with large oak trees lined along both sides and bending over to form a kind of a canopy. A canopy that covers the road, giving a beautiful, lush view. The avenue reminded me of a road I had been through in Provence, France.
But today, the sight of that woman with her suitcase was one of distress, not beauty. As we drove slowly by, she declined help. She was crying and had her head down, all the while pulling that black suitcase IN the road, not on the side, or on the sidewalk.
I didn’t want my younger kids to be alarmed, and they were busy talking to each other so I was thankful. But that sight of her on the road concerned me.
Some of us have been there. When we’ve reached the end of the fight and there’s no nothing left in us to fight. When we’ve run the course and there’s no more tracks left to run. When we’ve rushed somewhere only to find it wasn’t worth rushing to. We wish to escape somewhere else because where we’re residing is too much to handle. Because sometimes it’s easier to handle a suitcase handle than the handle of our lives. Fruitful and fulfilled in a situation, most of us wouldn’t want to depart. But when the conditions are contrary, we strive to look for salvation in a suitcase, not a Savior.
I don’t know where this woman was going, but wherever she was headed, she will need light. Not daylight, but the divine light in Jesus Christ. Without light in Christ, she will remain under a canopy of darkness no matter where she goes.
The psalmist declares, “Your Word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105) God lights our way. Through life in His Son, Jesus. Through the lifting indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Through light in His Word. When we believe in His Son Jesus, God gives us a light to help navigate this life and the trials that we encounter.
J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings Chronicles, wrote this: “Not all who wander are lost.” But in real life, some of us who wander really are lost. And until we place our trust in Jesus, we will be like that woman dragging her suitcase down the road, trying to leave somewhere so she could arrive somewhere better.
If you feel like that woman pulling the suitcase along, you are not alone. People may drive by, but Jesus will never pass you by. He stops to offer you a better ride and a better life. A suitcase is temporary refuge. A Savior is a divine tower of refuge. Seek the Savior instead, and He will handle all that your suitcase never could. Seek salvation in the Real Truth.