There’s a bridge down the road from here, they call it a high-water crossing- it’s a big concrete culvert shaped to allow the water in the creek it crosses to flow up and over it when there’s a lot of rain. When the creek is at or below normal levels, there are some big tubes or culverts that go right through the concrete for the water to run through. The little creek is especially pretty in normal times with the clearest Ozark water gently running through the greenery of the summer woods, or my favorite, the pastels of autumn.
The road running over it is just a two-lane blacktop – back where we came from in a previous life in East Texas, we called these “Farm to Market Roads”, just a low-traffic paved road through the country. Most of the back roads around here though, are not paved at all. These are dirt, or gravel roads, and they can get kind of rough, especially in the dry days of summer when they grow a series of ridges that form perpendicular to the direction of travel and are evenly spaced about a foot apart. They cause your vehicle to rattle and at the right speed, you can lose traction and actually skid on them as you navigate through a silent forest of dusty goldenrods or brilliant trees of autumn.
My favorite arteries through the backcountry are the many foot trails that wind in the woods out here. No roads at all, you just hoof it through the woods and listen to the birds and insects and feed the ticks. When the weather’s bad though, you are relegated to travel by automobile, and if the rain is really crazy, the high-water crossings become inundated and you either find another way to where you’re going or just stay home. Here in the hills, the drainage through the hollers is such that a lot of water can collect in the many creeks and rivers, and I guess the county budgets don’t have enough funds to build real bridges on all of the back roads. The crossings can be dangerous to attempt when the water’s up though.
When you come to one of those crossings when the water’s high, it gives you pause to think about situations we come upon in life where things get difficult for us. Like the ravaging flood waters, we often find ourselves in situations in which we have to consider our options, which during times of high water, are limited.
I suppose the first thing to consider is whether or not we really need to get across, how important is our destination? Do we need to get there badly enough to risk the peril of getting washed down the creek if we were to try to cross? Can our destination wait – usually a few hours – until the water goes back down? Is the trip worth going, often several miles, back and around a different route? Difficulties like this we encounter on a road trip bear a similarity to hazards we get into on our life’s journey.
Where are we going, and what kinds of risks are we prepared to take to get there? Seriously, if we’re on life’s road and we are required to make a decision in difficult circumstances, can we do so with a degree of confidence that we might get through, or on the other hand, might our choice lead us to a catastrophe? Is the threat of going through our obstacle at what might turn out to be a high cost worth the threat of not getting where we are going? If we’re trying to get to a fishing hole, maybe it would be prudent to turn around and try again later or maybe not at all. But if we have a family member down that road in dire need of help and whose life is depending on us getting to them, it might be more incumbent to try to get through.
As this old grandpa sees it, we are all on an important mission traveling down this road we call life. It is of the utmost importance that we understand what’s at stake at the end of this road – which for mankind is everything – we must get there with our spirit intact! But in this journey of which I speak, there is only one Route we can take, and unfortunately there will inevitably be some serious hazards. Those hazards will be placed before us by that wily old Devil himself. To mention a few, i.e., the promise of wealth can get in front of us (in so many ways), an inopportune high water of immorality that appears before us, and that one is particularly insidious, given our human nature, or any other of a myriad of earthly distractions. Whatever your flooded high-water crossing, on this trip you have no choice – you absolutely must get beyond the hazard, but how? How do you face that raging torrent of fear, anger, lust, pride – all of which are set before you to hinder your journey?
The answer is already in your heart, and all you have to do is listen to it. He said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…” – He’s already there. He will face that obstacle with you and take your hand and lead you through it. There’s no doubt He can do it – He was observed by eyewitnesses shutting down a major storm at sea! There’s no need to fear even the most intimidating dark cloud of discouragement when the Son of God is with you. There’s a lot of chaos and evil in the world today and it’s getting worse by the hour, but there is no threat He is unable to overcome – He’s the best Friend you can have and the only One you need.
Please don’t go trying to drive through a flooded crossing – this whole story is obviously a metaphor for problems we encounter on our life’s journey, and the answer is Jesus Christ – the answer to all distractions and dilemmas that might hinder our progress. At this point in our world, we could be annihilated to vapor in any given instant of time, or worse, we might find ourselves having survived a cataclysmic occurrence looking forward to a horrible future, but nevertheless, we have to get and stay right with Jesus and I’m serious as a heart attack, if we want to come out on the other side of this – to our destination – as we must. I can promise you’ll never for an instant be sorry you did.
God Bless,
MK