I
am sitting here in my office at church finishing up some thoughts for next week’s
message. Looking out the window, I can’t help but notice another gorgeous day
at the coast. The sun is out, a coastal
breeze is blowing.
From
my vantage point, I am also watching all of the vehicles traveling either north
or south on the Pacific Coast Highway. The
town that we now live in is small, about 750 people. And we are right in the middle between two larger
and touristier towns. We must drive the
half hour in either direction to go grocery shopping, to a hospital, to shop at
a chain department store, and for haircuts, office supplies, home supplies,
etc.
And
so it is with these cars, trucks, RV’s, motorcycles, and bicycles that I am
watching today. They are all going
somewhere and somewhere else. This isn’t
necessarily a place to stop; it is more a place to drive through. While we do have six or so motels, and six or
so restaurants, and six or so specialty shops, and six or so major events or
festivals (from the Celtic festival to the mushroom festival), in general it is
a point on their GPS to mark how much farther they have left to go on their
travels.
Which
brings me back to my main point of thought.
They are all going somewhere. They
are coming from and heading to a destination.
And as I watch all of the different style of automobiles and the
different colors, and different shapes I might add, they do all have some
things in common. The first is, as I
have already pointed out, they are all going somewhere.
The
second, and most important, those driving and/or riding in these wheeled means
of transportation, are people. And as
Christians, we are in the people business.
I will never forget what my pastor in Washington said as he came to
church well before the service on a dark winter morning. He said that he was taking a drive and noticed
all of the houses on the hill with all of their porch lights on or a couple of
lights on in the house as they were getting ready for their day. And then he said, “I was struck by the fact
that each one of those light represented people living there, people for whom
my Lord died for.”
And
today, I sit here watching the cars go by and recognize that in each of them is
someone that my God thought enough of to send His Son to die for them, in order
that they may have a forever life with Him.
And if they are that important to God, ought not they be important to
us? So I take a moment and pray for
those people containers zipping by, okay moving at twenty-five miles per hour
by, knowing that in them sit people who need to know and to hear the Love of
God.
