Photo by Annie Spratt
“The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.”
– Psalm 32:8
It’s the legendary question that’s heard from the back seat on every family trip. “Are we there yet?“
Long trips as a family are always an adventure, aren’t they? Miles of highway stretch between the driveway and the final destination. If you have young kids, doesn’t the journey seem to last forever? The excited chatter of eager children during the days on the road is replaced by their slumbering silence while mom and dad navigate through the nights.
I have a hazy recollection of myself as a little boy curling up under my mom’s feet on the front passenger floorboard during our family trips decades ago. Hearing my parents’ muffled voices above me, I was comforted by the sound. Feeling the vibration from the tires as they rolled across miles of pavement under the light of the moon, I would doze off. I trusted my parents to get us safely to the “grand vision” – the mysterious but exciting destination they had long ago planned for us. I remember gazing out the car window for hours as I wondered about a million things passing by. All the while, mom and dad focused on the destination. That was their job. Mine was to trust them, to behave, to wait for the next stop, and to keep asking the legendary question.
As I got a bit older, I remember unfolding a big roadmap in the back seat to see everything from an aerial view – the whole picture. Mom would point out our current location somewhere in the middle of the zig-zagging road lines, hoping to keep me from losing heart on the long journey. My parents always knew exactly where we were at any moment, how far we’d come, where we were headed, and the best “pathway” to get there. That made me feel safe and reassured that we would indeed, get there.
On later trips as a teenager, I do recall that some of the traveling excitement lost it’s appeal. I’m sure there were times my older sisters and I would’ve rather stayed home, not wanting to leave our friends and comforts behind, even if only for a week. Of course, we wanted to get to the destination in minutes rather than hours or days. We would’ve settled for any distracting amusement, like running across grassy rolling hills… not foreseeing the awesome grandeur of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains waiting in the invisible distance ahead of us. We would’ve been happy just wading in a winding creek… without a thought about the awe-inspiring vast, glistening oceans we could not yet see in the future.
Our parents knew that our teenage impatience and impulsive desire for little pleasures along the way would amount to nothing once we caught a glimpse of the vision. So we journeyed on. Over time, we learned that we’d be greatly rewarded by trusting our parents’ ultimate plans for us! I realize now, all these years later, that by nature I trusted the plans and the vision of mom and dad. My connection with them was inherent. It was built in since birth.
Over the last couple weeks this blog has been focusing on the new vision we receive as believers, as the children of an amazing Father. I’m so thankful for the capacity within our human architecture to know Him through what He chooses to reveal about Himself, and His own vision for each of us. As His children, our connection with God is innate. Humans are built – created – to experience it.
The memories of those journeys with our parents are illustrative in understanding the journey with our spiritual father. Let’s look back at the stages of our traveling lives…
As very young children of the Father – or for those of us looking back on that youthful faith – isn’t it true that a million things can catch our attention in a hustling, bustling world that seems to buzz by? We can still be enamored with natural sight. We can find ourselves being spectators, passively taking it all in. Yet we innately know we really need a guide. We know we need our Father to show us the best pathway, and to advise us and watch over us as we travel on.
Growing up, but still youthful, a change begins to take place. We take an interest in the bigger picture. We want to see more. A curiosity wells up, and I believe this is a step towards responding to the Spirit’s call. We begin to seek and respond. We pick up and begin to unfold our Father’s roadmap. It’s time to quit looking hypnotically out the window at all the distractions. Our eyes begin to see things we hadn’t yet seen or paid any attention to, thanks to the roadmap in our hands. Our Father points out where we are, how far we’ve come, and where we’re headed, to keep us from losing heart when the journey is long. Our Father begins to reveal knowledge we can trust, like the best way to reach our destination, His vision for us.
Even now, don’t you sometimes wish to stop along the hard and seemingly never-ending way, to enjoy any distraction in sight? There’s a longing you still have, isn’t there, to stop and just run along grassy rolling hills, or stick your toes in a winding creek? There are good distractions like these, but also destructive ones. But the Father knows, as we travel on this journey with Him, there are things not yet seen ahead of us – like grand mountain peaks and breathtaking, glistening oceans. These beautiful, powerful and mysterious “hidden” things, awaiting us down the road, will make the distractions along the way seem like nothing in comparison. If only we don’t lose heart.
These wondrous hidden things, like the Spirit of Christ, will be revealed to us as we seek them in the miles ahead. I want you to be encouraged, as I have been, that the long journey of faith is worth it all. We have been blessed with new vision by Abba Father, for the sole purpose of being able to see, by faith, His vision for us! You may be old enough to think you’ve already arrived, or that it’s way too late for you to enjoy the destinations in this life, but my feeling is that there is so much more for you to do, and see, and experience in the days to come, wherever the journey takes you. I encourage you to be eagerly anticipating the rewards you’ll receive, the hidden things that have yet to be revealed to your longing eyes of faith.
The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in accordance with the vision. Don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you. – Oswald Chambers
So, the legendary question is heard once again. “Are we there yet?”
Not just yet, but you possess your Father’s roadmap – His ageless Word to you. He knows where you are now and how far you’ve come. He sees where you’re headed. He promises the best way to get to your next destination, past the inevitable hardships, distractions, all the days and nights, and into your life’s worthy longings. Even after your lifelong pursuits and blessings of the journey here have been enjoyed and it’s your time to go home, none of it compares to the joys of your forever final destination, The Grand Vision.
“But as it is written:
‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’”
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NKJV)
