Signposts
My Dad drove us in the 1941 red Ford to see Uncle Jake and Aunt Marie in Fairview, Oklahoma. As he turned corner after corner in the middle of the countryside, he said, “Suzy (my nickname), pay attention to the road, because you are going to drive home.” I paid attention. On the way home, I confidently turned at one corner, and Dad asked, “How do you know to turn here?” I replied the classic lines that became the family joke, “I saw two black crows flying over here.”
To this day, I can become confused and don’t really trust maps. How do I REALLY know that this is the way and I will arrive where I planned? When I drew a map for my parents to come visit our new home in the country, I dotted the map with silos, houses and barns, but never a road sign. At least there wasn’t a black crow flying over. Mapquest and I are good friends now, and even Mapquest can be in error. I need signposts in this life. I need to know where I am going.
There is one destination I do not want to miss. And that is Heaven and there are signposts for Heaven. I love the verses from Psalm 19:1-3 –
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Verses 3 & 4 of Psalm 19 in the Message says – Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
No wonder that the office is not complete without a window, or a prisoner covets the sunshine from the tiny barred window, or the farmer revels in God’s creation all about him. He trusts in God for his livelihood.
My parents grew up on farms, and continued to spend hours in their vegetable and flower gardens during their life together. I didn’t always understand their exclamations of delight at each bloom, each green stalk and each green bean. In the midst of summer’s harvest, our meals were punctuated with cries of thanksgiving – “Our own potatoes, our own lettuce, our own tomatoes…” The first ripe strawberries created a sense of celebration as they were shared equally! Then came the ritual of preservation of the garden’s crops. The Siemens cellar had many jars of the harvest of fruits and vegetables to carry us through the winter.
Recently, at a Ladies’ Retreat, we were instructed to retrieve the mirrors from below our seats and peer into the mirror to see
ourselves as God sees us. We saw the imperfections as we see with finite eyes. Immediately we checked our hair and our makeup and giggled in embarrassment. We looked at the outward appearance.
I Samuel 16:7 – But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
What a tremendous challenge it is to see those about us by looking not at outward appearance, but at the heart as our Lord does. Recently, while shopping, I looked at those around me. I tried to see their hearts, and yet their appearance kept obliterating the heart-view.
On the Lord’s Day we sang songs, and I wondered if I could see the heart of God. As we sang Yahweh , Holy is your Name! repeatedly, and Your Grace is Enough.… I had to stop singing…for the immensity of God’s heart overwhelmed me. I listened to the words and focused on the heart of God.
Crazy Love‘s author’s words arrested me on the first page – “The wise man comes to God without saying a word, and stands in awe of Him.” The love-thoughts are heart-to-heart without words. Romans 1:20 – For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Why do we long to be outside? Why do we, at great expense, travel to places of incredible scapes of mountains and the sea created by our Creator? It is our longing to see the heart of God, the Creator of the world about us. The first time I stood ankle deep in the Newport Beach ocean, I felt the mighty pull of the waves that spoke to me of the mighty power of God. I heard in the thunder of the waves the voice of God.
The signposts are all around us, if we take the time to see with our hearts the holiness of our Yahweh. He is life, He is Love eternal. He is our joy, our shepherd, our guide, the One and Only.
Blessing and honor glory and power
Unto the Lord be praise
Sing with the chorus resounding before us
Holy is Your Name.
Comments? eacombs@eacombs@cox.net
I can so relate to yearning to be outside and in the mountainsof Colorado where I can hear God whisper my name. Oh Emily, I once told God that when I day please let me live in a simple log cabin beneath the Fourteeners of the Rocky Mountains. That is pure heaven to me…that is my mansion.
Barb